Nameless turned to face the other Empath, who was looking back at him with a frown on his face.
Jonathan willed another memory into being around them, and this one was more confusing and painful than any of the others that preceded it.
Because it didn’t belong to Jonathan alone, it also belonged to Nameless.
Chapter 26:
The Mighty
Jonathan’s eyes stirred and fluttered open, while Nameless was resting his forehead in his palm.
The darkness within the other man had been all-consuming and he found himself reeling from the experience as jumbled memories and the emotional torment of so many girls scattered his thoughts.
If it weren’t for Volka’s steady presence on his arm he would probably be in the same situation as Jonathan had been. As it was it took several moments for her to help him collect himself.
During that time Jonathan stood on shaky legs while Evadne, still expressionless, walked over from the door and helped him up. His eyes looked to Nameless, his expression unreadable.
“So they found the other one? Sadie is no doubt pleased.”
“A-are you okay now?”
Nameless had gathered himself but now had a splitting headache and his tongue felt thick in his mouth.
“And he grew up to be strong enough to pull me out of that hell. Impressive. And not at all anything we planned for.” He frowned, ignoring Nameless’s question entirely.
Jonathan and Evadne looked down at him and there was a sudden tension in the room. Nameless noticed even through the pain in his head and looked up to meet Jonathan’s eyes. They were dark brown and had no warmth in them.
“Are we done with the charade then?” Evadne spoke and her voice was colder than ever.
A chill went down his spine and he felt a sudden urge to flee, but when his eyes looked to the door he saw that the locking bar was bent into place, the Chimera had trapped him with them.
The last memory burst into his mind at her tone, this one stood apart from the chaotic jumble that he had experienced in Jonathan’s mindscape.
Evadne’s voice, a wounded Troglodyte, a man screaming to save his son.
A nameless baby crying.
My love, are you unwell?
Volka was heavy on his arm, his mind was reeling as he tried to make sense of the memory that Jonathan had all but thrown at him before he woke up.
But the other Empath spoke again.
“I nearly succeeded before the darkness took me, and I know what I did wrong now. Another Empath could undo everything though, so it’s good that he found us. Sadie’s power is broken but this boy is a complication we cannot afford. There is no getting around it. You need to get rid of him.”
A stunned Nameless didn’t have time to react as Evadne seized him by the throat, hefting him with ease.
Nameless! NO!!
Volka’s scream in his mind woke him from his stupor and he desperately fought against Evadne’s grip even as the Amazons began to pound on the door from the hall.
But the Chimera was far too strong.
Ignoring his flailing limbs she deliberately drew her arm back and flung him towards the window of the room with incredible force. His entire body smashed through the glass panes and he felt a horrible snapping in his arm and all along his left side as Volka’s shield hooked on the frame and was torn from his now shattered limb.
Time slowed to a crawl.
He was falling in an arc, Evadne’s strength was incredible and her throw had him sailing out and away from the tower. He saw the beauty of the building set against the blue sky as he plummeted. He could feel all of the girls screaming in his mind, all but Volka able to sense only his danger without context.
So this is how I end…
The entire turn of events was surreal and Nameless found himself more bemused than afraid.
NO!! I will NOT allow this!
Volka’s mental shout drew his attention to the broken window that was suddenly blazing with golden light. His vision blurred and he felt his vitality flow out of him. The roar of the wind, the pain in his side and the throbbing in his head all came rushing into his consciousness as time sped up again and it was too much.
His vision grew dark around the edges as his heart faltered at the energy being drawn from him.
Through the sudden haze he saw the sun descend on him upon wings of light. But he was falling so fast that the wind was whistling in his ears…
The light was faster.
Arms wrapped him in a firm embrace and he felt his face pressed to armoured breasts and his fall was arrested.
“I have you Husband! And I shall never let you go!”
For the first time Volka’s voice sounded not in his mind but directly above his head.
Nameless eyes opened in surprise, the pain he was in all but forgotten as he basked in the loving warmth of her angelic embrace.
She was tall, a few inches shy of six feet. Her thick wavy hair was long, strawberry blonde and flowed out of her winged helmet and framed her high cheekbones. Her wings seemed to be made of the same ethereal golden light that radiated from her eyes, and they were spread wide over him, her feathers shifting with the air currents as she glided to the earth. Nameless found that he could actually see through them if he squinted his eyes.
Her breasts were a match in size for Ophelia’s, though shining steel covered them. In fact, she was armoured from head to toe, though her midriff was exposed, her flat stomach naked to his gaze.
He absently noted that it seemed a poor design for armour.
While he could have spent an eternity studying her features in the warmth of her arms, through her wings he saw an inky darkness plummeting towards her exposed back.
“Look out!” He croaked in warning.
But the armoured Valkyrie was an experienced veteran and at his words she pivoted in midair and reflexively threw her shield out as the beam of absolute darkness plowed into them.
Her light dimmed, but only slightly, the dark energy of the attack broken by her shield with a dull gong. They hit the ground a few seconds later and Volka blocked a second and then a third beam from far above as Nameless tumbled painfully out of her arms.
They had landed in the square, near the statue of the Aegis and the last Valkyrie, which unsurprisingly bore a striking resemblance to her. There were a few shouts of alarm but mostly people just gawked at the wild spectacle.
“This is entropic magic! Forbidden to all life!” The Valkyrie was outraged as she glared upwards.
As yet another beam descended rapidly, she threw her hand to her hip to draw a sword of golden light from nowhere. She pivoted, bisecting the beam of absolute darkness with the glowing blade.
Perfect holes marked the ground wherever the beams struck, the cobbled stones simply gone as if they had never been.
“Come forth demon-touched! I am Volka, warrior of light, and I fear you not!”
Nameless looked up in time to see Evadne glide down from far above and land in front of them, Jonathan clinging to her side.
“Maybe you should fear me, little angel.” Her voice was cold.
“During the war your people flirted with the forces of entropy, Chimera, but they turned away from it.” Volka’s eyes narrowed; “What then has led you to this madness?”
Evadne clicked her tongue in irritation, for the first time showing a bit of emotion.
“I have no people. Just like you.”
Jonathan’s eyes were large as he took in the sight of Volka.
“A Valkyrie?! Impossible!”
“She will bleed.” Evadne said calmly, dropping him to the ground before taking an aggressive crouch before Volka.
“No! We have no time! We need to leave, now!”
Jonathan tried to pick himself up from the cobblestones on shaky limbs as he protested.
She ignored him.
Their landing had drawn quite a bit of attention from the gaping crowd and no doubt members of the Aegis would be there soon
.
“I will leave when they are dead. Like you said, he is a complication.”
Volka placed herself firmly in front of Nameless, her shield braced before her, her glowing sword in a low guard at her side and her wings spread wide like a threatened raptor.
“Then call forth your dark magics you foul thing! You will not harm my love!”
Evadne abruptly darted forwards with a flap of her own bat-like wings, twin beams of absolute darkness leading her charge, but Volka matched her speed with a charge of her own, her brilliant sword and shield deflecting the dark attacks. Evadne hissed as her snake tail lashed out, the venom in its fangs dripping and sizzling wherever it struck the stones at their feet.
Her strikes were a blur. Nameless could barely even follow them with his eyes, but Volka was a Lightbringer, fastest of the Valkyrie, and her shield inevitably met each jab from the Chimera’s poisoned tail. They dueled across the cobblestones, the Chimera’s magic and striking tail foiled at every turn by Volka’s grace and inviolable shield.
Indeed, the Valkyrie began to gain ground against Evadne; she knocked the dark monster away with a slam of her shield and abruptly leapt back and into the air just long enough to give a powerful flap of her wings that sent a barrage of golden feather hurtling like daggers at the Chimera. But Evadne wrapped her own wings around herself and absorbed the blows with a grimace.
At this point the bewildered spectators had become a panicked mob, scrambling to get away from the deadly conflict.
“That actually hurt…” Evadne observed with a frown.
“Flee then, or I will show you far worse!”
But Evadne merely laughed; a strange sound from the normally emotionless monster girl.
“You have not seen my true power yet, little angel. And you will regret making me show it to you.”
Liquid darkness swirled up from the ground, enveloping the Chimera and radiating out from her as armoured shadows covered all but her face, even as her teeth elongated into horrible fangs dripping with venom.
The sun dimmed in the sky.
“Truly, you have traded away your soul.” Volka’s voice was sad.
Evadne’s response was to charge at her again with a hiss, her attacks now bolstered by darkness as Volka’s light shone all the brighter in the face of it.
But a loose cobblestone would prove to be the Valkyrie’s undoing; the treacherous stone turned under her foot and caused her to lose her balance for the briefest of moments, her golden wings flapped to regain her footing but it was too late.
Evadne twirled and slammed her darkness-wreathed tail into Volka’s exposed stomach, knocking the breath from the Valkyrie and sending her armoured form flying back dozens of feet to smash into a market cart.
Nameless was too afraid for Volka to be afraid for himself, even as the shadowy form of Evadne stalked towards him with one clawed hand holding up a ball of oblivion created just for him.
But before she could reach him and end it, a spear thrown with deadly force struck a glancing blow against her face. Though it barely cut her forehead, it served enough of a distraction for eight Amazons to place themselves between her and her supposed victim.
Yana and seven members of her team had charged through the fleeing crowd and quickly taken in the scene: the sight of Nameless bleeding on the ground, combined with the sight of the glorious Valkyrie was more than enough for the Amazons to decide whose side they were on and Tiana had cast her spear at Evadne, no doubt saving Nameless’s life.
“Stand down, dark creature! This insanity ends now!” Yana declared, with her own spear leveled at the Chimera.
Nameless would have breathed a sigh of relief as Yana and her girls put themselves between him and certain death, but he knew that Evadne was too powerful. He tried to gasp out a warning but couldn’t breathe properly.
“Stay still Nameless! You’re in rough shape, so just stay still for me okay?”
Kar knelt at his side briefly, her voice high but steady as she pressed him back to the ground while he clawed at her arm.
Convinced he wasn’t going anywhere, she joined her sisters and shifted her focus to Evadne, though she couldn’t help the desperate fear she felt at seeing him laid out like he was.
The horrible stabbing pains all down his side had begun to overwhelm his senses again as he struggled to find a position to lie in that did not cause him excruciating pain.
Evadne sniffed, unimpressed at the forces arrayed against her even as she kicked the spear aside.
“This ends when the boy is dead. If you wish to die as well, it makes no difference to me.”
Her voice was calm as she scanned the determined faces of the eight warriors. The entire square was gripped in twilight, as if the very sun was afraid to witness the Chimera’s brutality.
But a light still shone bright against the darkness.
With a cry, Volka used her wings to toss aside the last of the ruined cart and quickly flew over to land beside the Amazons in his defense, standing shoulder to shoulder with Yana.
“Ware her magic! I will shield you where I can, but I must protect my husband!”
She spread her wings to their full extent and a golden glow emanated out of her and enveloped the eight warriors who each stood a little taller as her divine essence flowed over them.
“I-I can help!” Juni’s face poked out of the gourd on Volka’s back as long tendrils of her enchanted water emerged as well, forming an odd halo around Yana’s head.
“Be careful Juni, and you sisters, she is far more powerful than any foe we have ever faced.”
Yana was too much of a professional to be distracted by the thousands of burning questions that the unexpected scene demanded. Instead she stayed focused and didn’t take her eyes off of Evadne.
Jonathan groaned, consternation written on his features. He had long since given up on getting Evadne to withdraw. Instead he stayed back to wait on the outcome, shaky still on legs that had barely moved in years.
A heavy tension hung in the now vacant square and Nameless bit his lip hard enough to draw blood in a desperate bid to distract himself from the pain wracking his broken body.
Evadne moved first, casting her arms forwards and shooting her darkness out of her palms directly at him, but once again she was foiled by Volka’s shield, a hollow boom sounded as each magical attack was blocked by the resolute Valkyrie.
Without delay, Yana and her sisters leapt into the fray with ululating battle cries.
Nameless was afraid for them, and rightly so as more beams of darkness slammed into two of the charging warriors, knocking them to the ground hard.
Fortunately the Amazon’s were known for their resilience, and bolstered as they were by Volka’s divine protections the magical blows that would have otherwise blasted a hole through them had merely stunned them.
But they remained unmoving on the ground and it was clear they were out of the fight.
“Run! Please all of you!” Nameless gasped out desperately.
But the Amazons would not withdraw.
A Valkyrie had taken to the field and they would fight at her side even if it meant their deaths.
While a few of her sisters flanked the Chimera, Yana and the others charged in, Volka shielding the mighty Amazons from yet more magical blasts where she could. Juni’s water shot out and began an oddly silent dance with Evadne’s tail, batting and parrying the darting serpent, the Undine protecting her sisters from its venomous bite.
With the Valkyrie and Juni covering them, Yana and two of her sisters managed to land several glancing blows with their spears on Evadne’s arms and shoulders, but they had little to no effect on her dark armour.
The Chimera smiled at their efforts even as she thrust her arm to the right and blasted her magic into another Amazon who had tried to get behind her, sending the girl sprawling at the feet of the statue of the last Valkyrie.
While she was distracted, Kar leapt in with an aggressive shout and drove her spear against the Ch
imera’s hip, managing to crack the shadowy armour and draw no small amount of oozing black blood. Evadne grimaced and turned into the blow before it could penetrate deeper, completing a half rotation before throwing her fist in a vicious backhand at the Amazon’s head.
Fortunately Kar was quick and brought her arms up in time to block the blow, but it still sent her careening back several yards until she tumbled to a stop right beside Nameless, her spear clattering to the ground at her side.
Volka blocked three more blasts, all directed at him, all the while the Amazons circled, trying to get past Evadne’s vicious tail.
For the briefest of moments, Nameless and Kar’s eyes met while she shook off the Chimera’s blow, the binding in her ponytail had come loose and her hair was in disarray around her face.
She regained her feet and recovered her spear with a curse, spitting blood onto the ground before tossing her weapon in the air and catching it in a reverse grip. She spun and cast it at Evadne with all her strength, throwing her whole body into the air and scissoring her legs to add torque to the powerful attack.
But the Chimera saw the spear coming and abruptly twirled with all the grace of a dancer, her tail forcing Yana and the other Amazons back as she snatched the projectile out of the air, then pivoted again and threw it straight at a surprised Kar.
Nameless watched in horror as the Amazon was impaled by her own weapon.
She stumbled back in shock, limply tugging at the haft between her breasts, and then fell to her knees with a confused look on her face before she slumped to the ground inches in front of him.
“NOOOOOO!!”
Yana cried out in fury even as Evadne let loose a deep-throated laugh.
The enraged warleader broke away from the others and landed several heavy blows in rapid succession on the Chimera’s blocking tail, lines of dark blood marking where she had struck her with her spear, while bits of shadowy armour like blackened glass broke away under her furious assault.
But even though Evadne hissed in pain from the wounds, they were superficial at best and her dark armour reformed around them.
And with one final blow Yana’s spear shattered.
Legacy of the Valkyrie Page 35
