by Sam Hval
***
William zigzagged his way through the horde of dragons, and watched as the massive streaks of red stretched down above him. They seemed to vanish after a spectacular blast of light. The beasts flying near him gradually fell to the ground, as they tried to flap themselves upwards to recover from the blast.
"What was that?!" William yelled, shocked by the sheer power of whatever attack The Dominance just unleashed.
"The ship has cannons on both sides," Angel replied. William continued to focus fire on the dragons around him as he flew.
"Why do they even need us? They could wipe out an entire sector with those things!"
"They have an extremely high recharge," Angel let him know. "I think the next one starts in about twenty minutes, so be prepared. You wouldn't want to get caught in the blast."
"Don't sweat it. I'll be fine," William said with a tight voice. He continued to swoop up and around the beasts, as the battle raged on over Morridia.
Chapter 32
The orange rocks pummeled Cross's face, as they sprayed out from the yellow blast next to him. He watched Goldan wip out his weapon next to him, as he covered his face with one hand, and pulled out his gun with the other.
Goldan squeezed the trigger, and sprayed red laserfire near the attacker. Stelly tossed a C-Nade near the mysterious figure. Cross struggled up from the ground, and pulled the trigger of his blaster. The black figure whirled his hands around in a strange fashion, as he built up more yellow flames.
The flames propelled out of his hands tunneling straight toward Goldan. Goldan yelped and dived out of the way, taking Stelly down with him. Cross continued to fire straight at the attacker.
After only just a few seconds of firing, Cross realized the man was no longer near the hole, he was heading toward the tunnel!
"Get up!" Cross screamed to Goldan and Stelly. "He's making a run for it!"
"Go on ahead! We'll catch up with you!" Goldan yelled back.
Cross sprinted to the tunnel, and ran through the dark, winding path. Eventually he made it to the next cavern. This one was even bigger than the last. Except this time, a dragon waking from a deep sleep was there to greet him.
***
Angel stared intensely at the screen in front of her. She could hear the screams and chatter of others around her in the command room. "You're doing great keep it up," she told William. "Their numbers are decreasing."
"I'm doing fine," he grumbled.
She watched from a view of the nose of the ship. He ducked around and under the beasts, spraying pellets from his turrets as he went. The angle was disorienting, so she switched to the view from inside the cockpit.
Her eyes darted back and forth from the command feed to the right of her, to the screen that showed William's status. All of this stress was exhausting for her. She decided to lean back in her chair a bit to relax, and took a quick glance at the people in front of her. Their eyes were glued to the screen, with seemingly no physical reactions to anything that was going on.
When she looked back at William's screen, it took her much longer than it should have to comprehend what was actually happening. He was yelling, and heading straight to the ground.
***
Varik's anger and frustration had reached a level he had never felt before. His hands were warm from the heat that blasted out of them. As he sprinted his way through the dark tunnel, he could hear the echoes of the soldier's feet behind him.
After about a minute of continuous sprinting, he was exhausted. His body was too old for this much running. Varik finally made it to the cavern where 'The Behemoth' nested. She was the largest and most powerful of all the beasts that slept here. He saved her for any last minute change of plans. Now was the time to use her.
"Rise," he said with a menacing tone.
The beast’s eyes flicked open, and began to shake the orange dust off of itself. Even just a simple movement such as shaking boomed noise throughout the cavern. He climbed his way up the beast, stepping on the large scales.
He made his way to the top, and pulled his hood over his head tighter. The soldier began firing straight at him. Varik thought about striking him down then and there, but instead chose to leave right away.
"Off you go!" He boomed.
'The Behemoth' stretched out his massive wings, and began flapping them up and down. Varik held on, as the dragon started to hover off of the ground. A hot wind swirled around him from her wings.
Varik gripped even tighter once the dragon lunged forward out of the dark cavern, and flew out into battle. He had escaped unscathed, but who were those men? They were wearing Corridian outfits, but they could have been in disguise.
Who they were was indeed a question that needed answers, but where Varik would go from here was even more important.
***
Cross covered his face with his hand, as air blasted against his face, almost knocking him to the ground. The thing was huge, bigger than any living creature he had ever seen.
The man was atop the dragon, and Cross could just barely see his lips move from under his black hood. Was he speaking to it? The beast lifted off and out of the cavern.
Cross jogged over to get a better view of where it was headed, but they had soared up too high to get a good glimpse. He heard Goldan and Stelly approach from behind him.
"Are we late for the party?" Goldan asked with what little breath he had left in him.
"Yeah," Cross replied. He hadn't realized how exhausted he was. He plopped to the ground and stretched out in exhaustion. Goldan sat down next to him, with Stelly doing the same next to him..
"Who the hell was that?"
"I don't know, but whoever he was, he's responsible for all of this."
"You're right about that," Stelly added in. "Who else would just keep a hidden cave full of ancient beasts with him, and use them during a war. If you ask me, I think he might even be running the whole operation."
"What you mean even the Oldies?" Cross asked.
"Not a hundred percent sure, but if I had only one guess, yeah."
"We'll need to let the King know about all of this," Cross commanded. "We better head out before we run out of time."
Chapter 33
The view in front of Corridan looked like it came straight from a painting. The beasts swirled fire all around them, with the small combat ships of the Novidian Fleet fighting back with all of their might. The enormous vessel above towered over the battlefield. Its dominating shadow passed over the soldiers fighting on the ground.
After an entire day of stressful and exhausting managing of war, Corridan could sit back, relax, and watch the fleet do their work. He had yet to find out whether it was Red or the two people he sent out that brought them here.
He had never seen this many ships in action before. Despite all of the chaos, there was something quite serene about this picture. Somehow deep down in his soul, he knew that they were going to win.
It was at this moment of relaxation that Corridan realized all of his hopes over the past two days had come true.
Now, all he and to do was wait, and pray that enough people would come out of this alive. A lot of the ignorant citizens holed up in the undergrounds had already gotten themselves killed. This day didn't need any more death than it already had.
***
"Devil!" A voice echoed through her ears. "Wake up!"
Devil's eyes popped open, and she stared at the man who was standing at the door to her office. "What is it?"
"Where have you been!" The man glared at her, with sweat pouring down his face. It took her a little while before she realized that the man was a Sentinel.
"Here in my office. What's been going on? The last update I was given was many hours ago!" She answered. "Too many hours ago!"
The man jumped back a bit, and straightened himself back out. "I apologize about that, but we have been too busy managing what has been going on! We are outnumbered! One minute a dragon swooped in out of nowhere, the next, hundreds
of them appeared! And after that, the blasted Novidian Fleet came in as well! We've lost Devil!"
"Calm down!" she started to scream. "Let me see for myself!" She hopped up from her chair and pushed her way past the man through the door. Ullicar was in even more ruins. The stench of death and burning buildings slithered through her nostrils.
She looked up at the corelit sky. Hundreds of dragons soared above, with even more Novidian combat ships flying with them. Fire, lasers, and arrows blinked across the sky, and debris rained down.
"In Reydon's name..." Was all she could say. The shock of finding out that dragons actually still existed surprised her enough. It was the image of hundreds of them that stunned her more. The Sentinel was right. They lost. There was no way to get out of this alive.
Devil stormed back into her small, stone office building, sat in her chair, and quietly said, "Leave me here alone. And lock the door."
The man said nothing. He just did as she told him to. Devil sat in solemn silence.
***
William jerked his control stick left and right. He had lost control of his ship. It happened so fast, he couldn't even comprehend what actually happened. Something had hit his ship.
Was it a dragon? Was it friendly fire? Who knew, but it didn't matter. What did matter was that he was headed straight toward Ullicar. He was going to have to find a way to crash land safe enough to not get himself killed. "Angel!"
"What happened!" She replied over the comm.
"I don't know! Did you see?"
"I looked away! I'm sorry!"
"Come on kiddo! Pay attention!"
"I know! I know! The back side of your ship is on fire, and your exhaust ports are busted. You're going to have to land on the front of your ship without smashing into bits."
William didn't respond. He couldn't respond. He needed to focus as much as he could on landing the ship. He tried moving his stick around again, but this time it wasn't even working, and he was nearing ever closer to the town below.
"Angel! My controls aren't working!" William darted his eyes down to the gauges and meters. All of his lights shut off, and his ship started to glide down to the ground.
"Looks like your power shut down. I'm tying to figure out what's happening."
"That doesn't matter! It can't be fixed!" William yelled.
By now he was about to crash straight into a small, stone building. He quickly estimated that he had about twenty seconds before he crashed.
"I'm going down Angel!"
"I'm sorry! I can't do anything!" She cried.
"Don't worry, I'll be okay!" He cried back.
"No you won't!"
"Angel," he said softly. "You did good."
A cloud of black flashed before his eyes.
***
Angel cried in terror as her screen went blank. She buried her head in her arms on her desk and sobbed. The other managers and crew members around her stared in confusion.
"Hey, you all alright?" Torkin's voice came over the comm. Angel didn't answer. "What happened to William? I can't get in his comm." Angel continued to cry.
"Oh..." Torkin said after the silence. "I'm sorry. I'm sure he's in a better place..."
***
"...He was a good man," William could barely hear from the comm. It crackled and buzzed. The glass on his helmet was shattered, and the cockpit had the stench of burnt toast. All he could see was black.
Torkin was wrong. He wasn't a good man. William was never really ashamed of it. He didn't really like Angel, and he didn't give a damn about this war. But right now, in this moment of quiet, William realized that he didn't want to be a bad guy. He wanted to be what Torkin claimed he was, and what Angel thought he was.
A good man.
He felt around on his helmet, and tugged it off of his head. Without the white zigzags of cracked glass in his eyes, he could just barely make out his surroundings. He pushed up on the window above him. He knew that the button to open up the cockpit wouldn't work since the power was off. His only option was to try and break it open.
Pushing on it didn't do any good. He picked his helmet back up and began to smack it over and over again onto the glass. No luck.
He then unbuckled his straps, and slid himself down the seat so that he could lift his legs up above his body. He lined up his feet to the glass above and began kicking as hard as he could.
His muscles ached, and his body was sweating profusely with the heat. He kicked again and again. It didn't seem like he was ever going to break it until, after a lot of kicking, he heard a snap. Then, as if someone or something had answered his prayers, the glass shattered.
He covered his faces with his arms, as the pieces rained down on him. "Alright," he mumbled to himself. "Let's get out of here."
Chapter 34
Devil fell back in her chair, as the bricks of stone came flying straight at her. The wall crumbled, and part of the ceiling fell down in front of her. Her desk went flying with her. She yelped in pain, and crawled backwards to the wall.
What the hell happened? She just barely make out the nose of a small ship peeking through the pile of stone. Then, a loud snap-crack came from within the debris.
At the top of the burning debris a head popped out, and started to pull itself out of whatever it was stuck in. She noticed the gray uniform. It was a Novidian pilot. Obviously, he wasn't a good one.
Once he made his way out of the smoking debris, he stumbled over to her. The features of his face began to fade in to the light. William.
She had done it. She completed her last surviving goal: Finding William. All she needed to do was gift him with the secrets they had kept from him for too long.
***
William saw the gray-haired, uniformed old woman backed up against the corner of the room. There was a tipped over desk, and broken chair. Her face was tired, wrinkly, and bruised.
"Who are you?" William asked with a raspy, distraught voice.
"You don't know who I am, but I know you." Her voice was harsh and unsettling.
"And you expect me to know what the hell that's supposed to mean?"
She stood up, and started to limp towards something on the wall. His eyelashes were soaked with his own sweat, making everything harder to see. Whatever she was trying to grab, it wasn't good. William whipped out his blaster pistol, and pointed it at her. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"
"Drop your blaster," she commanded. She then snatched two different silver swords from a rack on the wall. "We will fight to the death."
"And why do we want to do this?" William asked, confused.
"Because I am a high ranking officer of the Oldie Unison. And you are a very important person. If either of us die, it will benefit the one who kills us greatly."
"Oh," William said. He was taken a little aback from the casualness of her claims. "In that case, bring it on old hag."
She lightly tossed him one of the shiny weapons, and gave an awkward, defensive stance. William gripped on to the handle, and watched her carefully. This was one of the strangest turn of events he'd ever witnessed. First, he was crash landing a ship, now he was dueling an old woman. He internally chuckled at the thought.
"This is going to be too easy," William said. This time he laughed out loud.
"I may be eldest, but I know how to use a sword," she taunted.
William lunged forward, slashing down with the weapon in both hands. She blocked, and both swords clashed with great fury. "Try harder," she taunted again.
William let go of pushing down on her sword, and tried to take a swing at her legs. She twisted her wrist quickly and blocked that as well. She then gave a sideways kick into his stomach. William stumbled back, and the old woman flicked the sword downwards. William cringed at the sharp pain from the metal slicing against his right thigh.
He tried his best to recover, and then gave multiple swings left and right. She blocked every single one of them. Damn, she was right, William thought to himself, as the old woman to
ok an even harder swing at his right arm.
He couldn't block in time. He flinched heavily with the pain, and watched the crimson blood ooze out of his arm.
"I told you," she said.
William gave a furious battle cry, and dashed forward at her. He hoped this would off put her just enough so that he could take a chance at at least scratching her. It worked. She startled, and hopped back a bit. William took the chance and slashed her stomach.
She screamed, and fell backwards on the ground. William stomped up to her, placed one foot on her chest victoriously, and pointed the tip of his sword at her throat.
"Nice try you wrinkly little bi-"
"William!" She cut him off right as he was about to strike her down. "William! Do you not remember me?"
"What are you talking about?" He really didn't have time for this, but she knew his name. That made him curious enough.
"William? It's me!"
"Who!? Who are you?" William yelled impatiently.
"Tell me Angel is safe!"
William froze in shock. It was Angel's grandmother. Devil. How did she know him?
"You're Devil aren't you! You kept your identity secret from Angel!"
"It was for you, William."
"How do you know me!?" He pointed his sword even further at her throat.
"William, I'm your grandmother!"
He dropped his sword. He stepped back in sheer confusion and terror.
"What... I don't..." He was speechless. If she was his grandmother... That would mean Angel is...
"And Angel is your sister!"
"No... No... That's a lie," he muttered. Thoughts, words, and memories swirled around in his head. Every kind of possible deduction to this claim flashed into his mind in the blink of an eye. But this was no lie. Angel was his sister. Somehow he knew it was true. Whether it was the sincerity in Devil’s voice, or he had known all along, something told him this was no dream.
