by Matt King
She could sense him searching her thoughts, probing to see if she meant what she said. For once, she did not hide her mind from him. He saw the truth within. She could see the change in his eyes as he accepted what was about to happen. His expression steeled.
There had never been a fight between the gods. Most of the Circle thought that when she took Ule’s life, she took it by force. What they didn’t know was that he gave it willingly. Ule surrendered to her, afraid that if he didn’t, she would destroy those worlds their war hadn’t already scorched. In a way, it was a relief, because she wasn’t sure how such a fight would start, or proceed.
But she knew how it would end.
Paralos abandoned his human form and sped away from her, creating portal after portal as he ran. She sped after him, taking shortcuts along the way as she guessed where he meant to go. She caught up to him just as he entered the galaxy where Pyr orbited its icy blue planet. He reined in his mass, making himself the density of a newborn star, and bore straight through the planet, annihilating it in an instant. The Pyrian screams flashed through her. They were there, and then they were gone—a million years of life she’d created, erased in seconds. In some depths, she felt sorry for them. It was a sentiment she couldn’t afford to have. They will live again, she told herself. When Pyra is born.
She gathered the remnants of the moon, as well as every nearby body of rock and explosive gas, including the system’s sun. The mixture collided, forming a growing pool of fire and stone. She coalesced it into a spear and hurled it toward Paralos. It chased him across the black sea of space and finally struck him in a blinding flash of light. The explosion knocked him off course. He righted himself and charged through another series of synapses on his way to the next of her worlds.
After Pyr, she wasn’t sure which world he’d attack next. She started to fall behind as she was forced to search for the terminuses of his synapses before she could make her own. Finally, he slowed, coming to a stop in a system where she had two large worlds that had flourished for time out of mind. He started to form himself into a weapon again. As soon as she arrived in the solar system, she mentally took hold of both worlds and slammed them together with Paralos in the middle. The explosion was immense. While he was stunned, she sent a stream of energy toward him, lassoing him in the process. His raging light lit up what was left of the system with a harsh white glow. She pulled him away and slung him through a synapse toward the center of the galaxy. The gathering of star systems was one of the largest in the universe. If she could get him near the singularity churning in the heart of the cluster, it might be enough to weaken him so that she could entomb his body for the passage to Pyra.
Paralos inflated himself to full size as he sped toward the black hole. She chased after him, increasing her own size to stave off the effects of the gravitational well. By the time he reached the center of the galaxy, he was full strength, burning as bright as the ribbons of stars swirling around the singularity’s center. He managed to stop himself before he reached the point of no return—the edge of the singularity’s well. The gravity of the black hole nipped at the edges of his energy, flaking bits of it off, where they disappeared into the bottomless depths, robbed of their light along the way.
She tried to push him farther into the plunging depths. He fought back, simultaneously pushing her away while disrupting the fabric of the event horizon. She concentrated harder, using all of her energy to send him through. Eventually he fell, but the damage to the singularity was already done. The black hole evaporated just as she forced him down into its remnants.
The galaxy warbled without its gravitational center. Stars escaped their orbital paths and streaked off into space. She and Paralos stood in the center of the chaos, surrounded by the explosions of stars as they careened into each other.
“Trillions dead already,” he said.
His number was not exaggerated. “The price of mortality,” she answered.
“Is your precious power worth all this?”
With worlds upon worlds exploding around her, each potentially containing more lives than even she had created in a lifetime, the weight of his words was not lost on her. Still, she buried the realization beneath a mantra that had carried her through the storm of her unnatural age. “You mistake me, old man. I do not crave power as you do. What I do, I do for Pyra. I do it for a better life.”
“A life you’ll no longer control,” he said. “You know this.”
“I’m tired, Paralos,” she said, not realizing until the words were out of her mouth how loose the reins on her thoughts were. What does it matter anymore?
“Then stop fighting.”
“This is my final fight.”
“It doesn’t have to end like this. Let me take over your role, Amara. If you want to be rid of the title, be rid of it, but don’t kill the rest of us in the process.”
She had been around long enough to know that denying her feelings didn’t mean they weren’t real, or present. There was a part of her that wanted to relent. Maybe she should let Paralos have his way. It would give her what she wanted—a way out, an existence where her power did not unduly weigh her with responsibility. It had been so long. All she wanted was to rest.
“I can see your conflicted feelings, Amara. This can be over now. Think of it. You and I can call a truce and put an end to this war. The Circle can keep going. We can keep going.”
“For what purpose?”
His light wrinkled with bursts of yellow. “To live, of course.”
“A life with no end.” Saying the words brought her focus back. “There is a world beyond this one, Paralos. A better one. One where we’re not burdened with this immortal sickness, driven by greed and power. Our Circle was a symbol of the problem, one destined to never end. I’m breaking that cycle now, with Pyra’s help.”
Paralos grew still. His inner light began to churn, first flickering with red before it overtook his blue calm and encompassed him entirely. “Such a waste.”
“Such is life.”
He would try to run again. She couldn’t let the fight go on any longer. If she was going to save those in the Circle who were still alive, she needed to end him quickly. A singularity was the only thing that could hold him, and yet she knew of no other in the universe bigger than the one she had already used.
Then I will make one.
She acted quickly, altering her mass, folding it in on itself until she was at first the same size as Paralos, then smaller and smaller, warping the gravity around him as she doubled her mass repeatedly while at the same time reducing her size. The power and control it took to transform herself into a black hole was immense. Everything inside her wanted to release, to re-inflate to her normal size. She fought the urge. As her body fought against her, she kept folding herself inward.
Above her, where the force of her change took hold of Paralos, she thought she could hear screaming. She hoped so. Still she pressed on, waiting for the rush of energy as her trap eventually wore the old god down and stripped him of his life.
All around her, reality shifted as she stretched the fabric of the universe to its limits. She was losing control of her thoughts. Her hold on the forces begging to be released weakened as she spent her energy on one final fold. Every atom she commanded screamed in rebellion. If she let even one slip, the dam would no longer hold. She held on with everything she had, pouring herself into the strength it took to reach beyond and pull the bonds together as far as the bonds would allow. Time stretched to its breaking point. She could only hold herself in such a state for a single moment, a short-lived last-ditch effort to kill Paralos and end her eternal struggle.
At last, she felt the surge. Paralos’ energy raced around her, an intense rush of power that coincided with the release of her own. The explosion of energy took only the smallest fraction of time. In that fleeting instant, her expansion raced outward with an energy beyond her control. She panicked. The release couldn’t be contained. As she lost control of the folded
bonds, she grew farther away from being able to keep her own form. The explosive force threatened to scatter her to the far ends of the universe. No. I won’t let it. Not when I’m so close.
It had taken all her will to create the singularity, and she matched the effort to make herself whole again. She reached out through the fire of her expansion to grab hold of her essence, even as some of it raced away from her forever, losing itself in the flames. Thoughts screamed frantically through her as she loosened the hold on her consciousness to give herself every bit of energy she could for the fight.
The peak of the eruption mercifully came to an end. When it was over, she had managed to regain her form again, but only barely. She could feel it as soon as the explosion had run its course. It had stripped her of nearly everything. Beyond her, the effects on the universe were astounding. The explosion left behind a spreading fire that had already claimed a huge swath of the universe, destroying pathways that had formed even before her birth. She floated in the violent storm no longer as the god she once was, but as nothing more than a fledgling immortal. But she was alive. In a zone of extinguished life, she was alive.
“Amara…”
She turned at the sound of the whispering voice. Behind her, barely held together with the loosest of bonds, was the remnants of Paralos. He was disfigured—a ragged collection of energy. Like her, he had tried to collect himself after the explosion, but her trap had taken from him everything she had used to survive it. He was near death. As weak as he was, though, his energy would be enough to give life to Pyra.
She started to form the prison that would entomb him for the journey.
“Please,” he croaked. “I’m begging you.”
“Your sacrifice will not be in vain,” she said. With a tired mind, she began to wrap him in his cell.
“No…no.” What life he still had left in him quaked as the walls of her prison wrapped around him. “Please…. PLEASE NO.”
In his final moments before the cell enveloped him, she read his mind. For once Paralos surprised her. With his last seconds of life ticking down, he prayed. The god who saw himself as the progenitor of the universe prayed for a higher power to save his life.
Not in vain, she repeated to herself again. She took hold of Paralos’ prison, the final jewel in the crown of her plan. In her weakened state, she could still make the journey to Pyra, and then to the Void.
Now they will all see. This life has an end, but there is more. Pyra’s light will show the way.
She opened the synapse to Ascension’s doorway with Paralos in his prison at her side. Through the hazy membrane, she saw the dormant body of Pyra floating in space, her dim light of existence hungry for the soul that would usher her back to life.
Now they will all see.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The Tria lingered dangerously close to the fight. As Ion took to the sky, he picked out Ellia’s swirling cloud of black smoke immediately. Soon she would unleash one of her familiars. Beside her, Tiale sat motionless on the ground with Mordric between them. His long white braid hung over the shoulder of his dark robes. He gestured to Ellia once he noticed Ion coming toward them. The clouds around her swirled faster. A four-legged creature emerged with black wings and blood red eyes. It lowered itself to the ground so Mordric could climb on its back.
Ion doubled his speed. If Mordric made it to the skies, he could be at the front lines of the battle in seconds. August and the others were too vulnerable already. They had no time to do anything other than fight the armies swarming them. Any attack by Mordric would likely mean their death.
He arrived just as Mordric took to the air. Using the layer of energy around his shell like it was lasso, he reached out and grabbed Mordric off the beast. At the same time, he took hold of Tiale and Ellia, sending an arm through her cloudy shield, and raced off again into the sky. He streaked west, away from the fight, to a large sea of flat sand. He could only keep his hold on them for so long. Mordric and Ellia thrashed against the bonds holding them. Before they could escape, he crashed down hard, sending sand and stone flying in all directions. The Tria scattered on impact.
Ion emerged slowly from the crater. His red light swirled angrily. As he rose, so did the Tria. Ellia helped her father back to his feet. Mordric glared at Ion with a look of angry disbelief. Tiale was unharmed. She lay on the ground, her red and yellow-ringed eyes studying the dirt like it told a story only she could read.
Ellia formed her shroud again. Of the three, she was the weakest, but also the most problematic. Her familiars could end up distracting him long enough to allow Mordric or Tiale to harm him. He would eliminate her first.
He darted toward her, priming his weapons to penetrate her defenses. Mordric reached out with a telekinetic hand and stopped him before he could make it through the swirling black clouds. Ion discharged a bolt of lightning to break his hold and pushed him back on his feet.
“How long do you think you can keep us from your friends?” Mordric asked. Beside him, another of Ellia’s familiars began to emerge. It was a winged beast twice the size of her earlier pet.
Ion stayed silent as he assessed the coming fight.
“We knew they would send you first. We’ve prepared something for your arrival.” The white-haired champion looked down at his youngest daughter. “Tiale, show this machine what we have learned.”
Tiale traced her finger through the dead earth of The Void.
“Tiale!” he shouted.
She snapped her eyes closed.
Mordric spoke a string of words under his breath. He walked to her side, grabbing his daughter by a fistful of hair. Her body hung listless at the end of her mossy strands. Eventually, her eyes opened again. They angled up at Mordric.
“Do not look at me, girl. Show him.”
Ion tried to escape before she could unveil whatever plan they’d concocted. His systems wouldn’t respond. Something held him in place, some unseen force that had control over his inner workings.
Impossible.
It was a word he’d had no cause to use before. He’d made record of every advanced technology in existence. What held his systems hostage should have been detectable somehow, and yet his control had been wrenched away with no traceable force manipulating it. He didn’t have to search his memory for something with those types of abilities. There was nothing in the known universe with that kind of power.
Tiale’s eyes drifted down until she stared at him. The rings of red and yellow around her pupils were the last image he saw before his vision warbled, then disappeared in a wash of black.
Without sensory input, he was left to drift in a conscious sleep. The all-encompassing silence eventually worked its way into his thoughts, chipping away at his ability to think until he was nothing more than a mindless machine again, waiting for commands. His struggle against the constricting force faded to nothing.
The silence seemed to stretch for hours.
Open your eyes, a small voice whispered.
A strange feeling seeped through him as his consciousness returned, one he fought against until his fight was taken away. Once it was gone, he accepted the sensation without question.
I don’t have eyes, he answered.
Even as he spoke the words in his mind, he knew they weren’t true. He could feel the connection, a strange sensation of control over a system of muscles and nerves.
He commanded his physical eyes to open.
The world revealed itself in a spectacle of colors, softened as though he viewed it through a haze. When he looked down, a pair of hands hung at his side. He brought them up and studied them, turning them over to see both sides. He gently touched the clothes covering his arms and legs. The fabric felt soft beneath his fingers. He relished the wind raking across his skin. What began as foreign now felt like it completed him, as though he’d been searching for it his entire life.
He stood in a garden of flowering plants. He ran his hands through their leaves as he walked along the path meanderin
g through the growth. I’m walking. The sensation of moving on his feet felt new—and yet familiar, as though it came naturally. He let out a short laugh as tears welled in his eyes.
Something leapt out of the plants ahead of him—an animal of some sort. He stepped faster, hoping to catch another glimpse. Soon he came to the edge of the garden, where it gave way to a small patch of short green leafy plants no taller than his feet. The animal darted out of the tall plants and raced through the tiny field on six fur-covered legs. It looked back at him with hopeful eyes, begging him to play.
“He likes you,” a girl’s voice said.
He looked to his right to see a young girl sitting on the ground. She held a flower in her dirt-covered hands, turning it back and forth between her fingers. Matted, limp hair hid her face. She looked out of place in such a clean world—a stain on an otherwise perfect canvas.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“You know who I am.” The flower in her hand stopped turning. She looked up at him with eyes ringed both with red and yellow. “I like you this way,” she said. Her voice sounded like it came hours after her thoughts. Her mind was elsewhere.
“Tiale,” he said. The name felt right, although he wasn’t sure how he knew it. And I don’t care. He looked at his hands again, suddenly hungry to know more about his body.
“Have a look if you want.”
He looked up, startled. When he turned to his left, a mirror stood in the clearing, encased by an ornate carved wooden frame. He stopped breathing when he saw himself in the center of the reflection. His hands rose absently as though he was testing whether or not he was real. His arms were long and thin, his body tall. His wavy gray hair was combed back from his face, which featured light brown skin and dark green eyes. His clothes were elegant, like he was on his way to a party. He took a breath and watched his chest rise and fall. It was hard to break his stare.
His furry friend came bounding through the grass, nipping at the pants fluttering over his bare feet, which were nearly covered in the small ground cover now. It sniffed his foot and nipped at his toe.
