by Jacob Holo
The attack impacted against Zophiel’s armlet and sent him spinning away but failed to cut through his arm. Behind him, the Gate tore both columns apart and began whirling madly around the chamber.
“Damn it!” Jack clutched his leaking side.
The seraph was silent.
“Good idea! Vek, go for the fiend’s head!”
“Engaging!”
Veketon flew up at the fiend, and Jack dove towards it. The fiend regenerated one of its hands and swung at Veketon. One talon tore through his shoulder and broke a chunk off his primary halo-wing, but Veketon sped in, undaunted. He swept underneath the jaw, plunging his lance into its throat.
Jack landed on the forehead and thrust his lance deep into the fiend. He pushed in, and the lance sank further into the creature’s head, then slipped fully in. Flesh bubbled. Blood oozed out. The lance cooked the fiend’s brain from the inside out.
“It’s faltering! Keep it up!” Jack activated his chaos sword and stabbed brutally into the creature’s good eye. It burst in a spray of clear fluid, the monster’s screams filling his mind.
“Vayl, I once gave you life and purpose!” Veketon shouted. “Here and now I claim it back!” He raked his lance across the fiend’s throat. Oily blood gushed from the gaping wound and splashed off the throne’s barrier.
Jack flew behind the head and stabbed in at the base of the neck, cutting into the spinal cord. Black energy crackled all over the fiend’s body, but not the same as the earlier beam attack. The energy jetted wildly out of its wounds.
Jack and Veketon continuously slashed at its head. Nearby, Quennin, Tesset, Yonu, and the remnants of Knight Squadron fought to the death against the Disciples. Their battle seemed small and distant to Jack as he hacked at the fiend’s head again and again and again.
Slowly, with a deep exhale of death, the fiend stopped moving. Its arms went slack, and the energy escaping its wounds died away. The giant mutilated corpse floated limply within the ravaged spherical chamber.
Jack backed away from the dead creature.
“Whew!” he said. “That wasn’t so tough, now was it?”
The seraph did not speak.
“Of course, I’ve felt better! In fact—”
Without warning, the fiend exploded in a huge eruption of black energy, bits of gore blasting out in all directions. Jack’s barrier flared brightly around him, barely holding back the torrential forces. Mnemonic skin boiled off, and several internal systems charred to a crisp.
The explosion struck all of the combatants and flung them away like leaves in a storm.
“CRAAAAAAAAAAP!!!”
Jack crashed against the chamber floor, his head swimming. The explosion rolled him across the ground, pushed him into the cross-shaped chasm, and sent him plummeting towards the pool of liquid lightning far below.
Chapter 20
What Will Come to Pass
“Ohhh…” Tesset muttered within the pilot alcove, her connection to the seraph broken.
The world outside was a dark unknown. She perceived the cockpit, her seraph, and the Ziggurat outcropping her craft lay on, but could sense nothing beyond that.
Tesset shook her head, trying to clear her mind. She activated her neural link and opened a damage report.
The seraph’s body appeared in her thoughts, covered in warning lights: five endoskeleton cracks, three warped (but still operable) wings, and two bypassed fluidic transfers. Almost every scanner was fried, and all of her conformal pods were melted beyond repair, so no torpedoes and no stealth field.
All things considered, it could have been worse. Somehow, she’d even managed to hold onto her rail-carbine. The weapon’s firing chamber was damaged, but its blade still functioned.
Tesset tried to remember what had happened. The chaos fiend had exploded, throwing her clear, and she’d landed… somewhere.
She took a deep breath and concentrated. Her thoughts flowed out into the seraph. Chaos energy surged through its systems, and suddenly, she became the seraph, feeling what it felt, seeing what it saw.
It wasn’t much.
Only a single damaged optical scanner remained in the head. Normally, her seraph formatted visual data specifically for her mind; it would show her sight, but in every direction simultaneously. However, with only one eye left, she now peered at the world through a dark, narrow tunnel.
Tesset swept her eye over the Ziggurat ruins.
A cross-shaped shaft rose around her, blocked off at the top with twisted brass debris. Cracks had formed along the shaft, and several of them led to other chambers. Below, a pool of liquid lightning seethed and splashed against the tall brass walls. Several outcroppings spanned the shaft, and Tesset lay face-down on one.
She stood up. Through the Alliance hypercast link, she spotted Seth and Quennin high above near the Gate. Three seraphs from Knight Squadron accompanied them, and all five were heavily damaged.
Jack and Veketon lay on the next outcropping down. Blue viscous fluid leaked out of both craft, and mangled mnemonic skin slowly closed over their numerous wounds.
“Jack?”
He rose to his knees, his five remaining wings spreading awkwardly, then folding together.
“Ohhh… that hurt. Is that you, Tesset?”
“Yeah.”
“Damn, that was rough. Vek, you awake?”
The throne pushed off the ground, its primary halo-wing spinning in two broken arcs.
“Yes, though my flight systems are heavily damaged. That explosion fried the anchors for my halo-wings. I’m immobile and will need several minutes to enact even basic repairs. What’s your status?”
“I’ve been better.” Jack huffed out a pained breath. “Definitely been better. Tesset?”
“Minor damage to the seraph and no conformal pods.”
Still on his knees, Jack’s white seraph looked up and across the shaft. He ignited his chaos sword.
“Hey, Tesset?”
“Yeah?”
“We have company.”
Tesset followed Jack’s gaze to a ledge on the far side of the shaft. Zophiel and Othaniel stood on it, less than a kilometer away. Leaking blood slicked their seraphs’ half-melted brass armor, but both wielded portal lances.
“Bane Donolon, your lance?” Veketon asked.
“I left it in that thing. You?”
“No idea.”
Zophiel pointed his lance at Veketon’s throne.
“Get up,” he said.
Veketon rose to his feet and lit an energy sword and shield. Jack stood up behind him, and Tesset ignited her rail-carbine’s bayonet.
Zophiel unfurled his wings, two of them mutilated beyond recognition, and lifted off. He rested the portal lance on his shoulder.
“Are you satisfied now, my ancestor?”
“Satisfied?” Veketon asked.
“You have done what I thought impossible,” Zophiel said. “You have killed my lord and stopped his invasion of our universe. Without their leader, the spawns now scatter throughout the Necropolis. You have utterly defeated me.”
“Then stand down. Let the bloodshed end.”
“NO!!!” Zophiel raised his lance. Black energy snapped across its length, and the sinuous script darkened into the dead of night. “You have taken everything from me, but even in defeat my duty remains clear. Death must be repaid with death.”
“And yet you’re still just talking,” Veketon said.
“I could have killed you before you recovered, but I chose not to. I will not poison my revenge by killing a helpless foe, and despite all you have taken from me, you are still my ancestor. I now grant you the right of honorable combat. We shall fight, here and now, until either we fall or you do.”
“There is no point to this.”
“Yes there is! You—”
Tesset opened a private channel. “Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“We need to get out of here.”
“We can’t outrun them.”
“Ja
ck, they’re here for Veketon, not us.”
Jack didn’t immediately respond. Surely he realized what she was suggesting.
Finally, he said, “I know. But I’m not leaving.”
“Jack, this is about survival!” Tesset said. “Veketon’s in no condition to fight, and you can’t take both Disciples by yourself!”
“If it were Seth or Yonu or any of the others, would you be saying the same thing?”
“Well, of course not!”
“Exactly. You said so yourself, he’s changed. I had my doubts, but now I finally believe it. The man even fought against his own seraph. I don’t think there’s anyone beside me who truly understands what that would be like, and he didn’t even hesitate. The man is without a doubt the biggest jackass I have ever met, but when he chooses a path, he really chooses it.”
“Jack, please…”
“As hard as this might be to admit, he’s earned my respect. Besides, who am I to deny the man a second chance?”
“Don’t do this…”
“I’m sorry, Tesset. I’m not running from this fight.”
Jack disconnected the private channel.
“Curse it, Jack!” Tesset shook her head angrily and switched back to Zophiel.
“—may have won this battle, but I have seen my lord’s prophecy! I have seen the legions of this realm set loose up our universe! I have seen the Homeland burn as the minions of Xaet fill its endless skies! The Keepers will fall, and humanity will be crushed under a merciless heel! My lord Vayl foresaw all of this, and it shall come to pass!”
“Oh, you are so full of crap,” Jack said.
“Flee, pawn of the Keepers,” Zophiel said. “I am not here for you.”
“Like I care.” Jack fed power into his wings and ascended. “Tesset, get out of here. They won’t follow you.”
“Curse that,” Tesset said. “You need all the help you can get.”
She rose to Jack’s side, fear sickening her stomach and pounding in her chest.
“So be it,” Zophiel flourished the lance and rose above them. “Defend yourselves.”
Jack launched himself upward. Othaniel sent an energy whip racing after Jack, but Tesset dashed across and cut it down.
Zophiel dove at Jack, and lance met sword in an explosion of light. Despite their grievous injuries, neither seraph yielded. Energy scintillated between them, and Tesset quickly looped up and over Zophiel.
She swooped down and chopped into his arm with her rail-carbine’s bayonet. Black blood trickled from the shallow wound, but Zophiel ignored her, instead focusing completely on Jack. The two of them exchanged another pair of mighty blows.
Othaniel attacked Tesset with another whip, but she was ready for it, tracking the Disciple with her one good eye. She darted out of the way and slashed into the whip with her bayonet. Her blade strained the whip for a brief moment before cutting through, and the attack evaporated into black mist.
Othaniel rose behind Jack, portal lance ready and energized.
“Jack, behind you!”
Jack flared his wings and powered above the two Disciples. He formed a javelin of blue light in his land and threw it at Zophiel. The attack sped in, becoming a brief line of hot blue, and stabbed Zophiel in the chest. Blood splattered out, and he fell away.
Othaniel flew after Jack. He reignited his chaos sword and brought it around, clashing against her lance in a snap-flash of blue and black light. Tesset saw an opening and dove in. She slashed her bayonet across Othaniel’s elbow, sinking the blade in so deep it struck the seraph’s bones.
“Take this!” Jack pulled his sword back and pointed the blade at Othaniel’s new wound. With a sharp lunge, he pierced through Othaniel’s elbow. Flesh tore and bones cracked as her forearm came free. Othaniel fell back, swinging her lance. Her attack rebounded harmlessly off Jack’s shield.
Far below, Zophiel regained control. He spread his wings and ascended towards the other combatants. Othaniel looped in alongside him, and the two charged Jack together, brandishing their lances.
Jack tried to pull away, but the Disciples rushed in too fast. He raised his sword and shield, trying to block both attacks at the same time. The Disciple lances crashed into his defenses in flashes of light, and Zophiel slid his lance past Jack’s shield.
“Yaaaaaaaaah!!!” Jack cried out, the lance punching deep into his chest.
Zophiel sank the lance in so deep it pushed out of Jack’s back and impaled one of his wings. Black energy writhed along the shaft, and the armor near the wound shriveled.
Othaniel looped behind Jack and raised her own lance.
“No, you don’t!” Tesset charged in, and Othaniel turned just in time to see the glowing bayonet crash into her face. The blade skidded down the brass Ziggurat helm, chopped into the Disciple’s neck.
Thick blood pulsed out of the wound. Othaniel swung wildly at her and shattered the rail-carbine with her lance. Tesset ducked, and the lance sailed over her head. Its tip grazed one of her wings, cracking open mnemonic armor and rupturing fluidic transfer lines. She gasped in sudden agony and sped away from the Disciple.
Tesset’s attack had gained Jack the spare moment he needed. He grabbed Zophiel’s wrist with both hands, twisted the limb, and ripped his arm apart. With Zophiel no longer touching the lance, its script faded to a faint gray against the white shaft.
The lance still pierced Jack’s torso and had wrought horrendous damage to the seraph’s internal systems, but chaos energy no longer actively burned the seraph from within.
Zophiel made a grab for the lance, but Jack smashed him aside with a quick uppercut. He struck Zophiel in the face so hard his Ziggurat mask crumpled and bones snapped in the seraph’s neck. Zophiel flew back.
Othaniel readied her lance and rushed Jack from behind. There was nothing Tesset could do this time. Othaniel thrust the lance into Jack’s lower abdomen and punched all the way through.
“Jack!” Tesset shouted.
“Eeeeeiiiiiiaaaaahhh!!!”
Tesset listened to his horrible cry and quickly flew back in to help. Below her, Zophiel recovered, spread his wings, and shot up at great speed.
“DON’T THINK THIS IS OVER!!!” Jack screamed at the top of his lungs. Somehow, even with two portal lances impaling him, he engaged his chaos sword and swung at Othaniel. The sword smashed through her defenses and sliced open her chest. Blood showered out, and she let go of the lance. Her seraph tumbled away and crashed onto an outcropping near the shaft’s bottom.
Zophiel disengaged the Ziggurat sword still attached to his back and shot in.
Tesset lit a chaos dagger and attacked Zophiel from the side. He faced her and swung, sword smashing against her dagger with terrible force. Tesset’s blade wavered, faded, and then splintered into a thousand winking lights.
Zophiel drew the blade across her chest, cutting through barrier and armor with equal ease. Tesset screamed, a line of scorched flesh etched across her true chest in the cockpit. Medical alerts flashed in her mind as her i-suit deployed nano-cilia into the wound.
Zophiel raised his sword above Tesset for a killing blow, but he hesitated at the last moment and looked up.
“GET AWAY FROM HER!!!”
Jack dove at him. Even run though twice, his first thought had been to protect her.
The two titans clashed once again, both wounded and near death, neither willing to yield. But while two powerful artifacts disrupted Jack’s body, the flesh of Zophiel’s seraph swiftly regenerated.
Othaniel’s return only made it worse.
Tesset was still recovering from Zophiel’s strike, and she watched helplessly as Othaniel came up behind Jack. She took hold of one of the lances and poured black energy into it. Jack limb’s spasmed, leaving him wide open.
Zophiel plunged his sword into the seraph’s chest and didn’t stop until he’d buried it down to the hilt.
“NO!!!” Tesset shouted.
The Ziggurat sword passed directly through the cockpit.
“JACK!!!”
The runic shunts across Jack’s seraph flickered and darkened, conductor fluid pulsing from all three chest wounds.
But the seraph did not die.
Even though it had no pilot, its shunts reactivated.
The seraph looked up, its artificial eyes focusing on Zophiel. It grabbed Zophiel’s remaining arm and raised a fist. Zophiel tried to pull free, but the berserker seraph held on. In her mind, Tesset heard the wail of an enraged beast.
The seraph drove its fist into Zophiel’s chest, through the cockpit, and out the other side. Bits of gore slicked its twitching fingers.
Zophiel died, and the shunts across his seraph flickered off.
The berserker seraph seemed to lose what little strength it had left, and the two combatants plummeted towards the liquid energy ocean below.
Othaniel grabbed hold of Zophiel and pulled him free. The white berserker seraph fell away with the portal lances and sword still driven through its chest. It splashed into the liquid ocean in a great geyser of white light and vanished into the luminous depths.
Othaniel landed on an outcropping and cradled the broken body of Zophiel’s seraph.
Tesset floated down to Veketon’s wounded throne. She panted, the nano-cilia digging deeper into her burned chest.
Othaniel rested her head on the broken seraph’s chest. Blood poured from its wounds, now crimson from the lack of influx.
“I hope you have enjoyed your victory, my ancestor,” she said quietly.
“Enjoyed?” Veketon asked. “I have enjoyed none of this.”
“Now I have lost everything. Will you and this child take my life as well? I will not stop you.”
“I have no desire to fight you,” Veketon said.
“Then go. Leave me to my grief. I am no threat to you anymore.”
Othaniel held her brother’s broken seraph, gently caressing it with a delicate hand. Blood from both seraphs pooled under them.
“I will need your assistance to get out of here,” Veketon said on a private channel.
