He Who Crosses Death

by Isaac Hooke

  Tane kept his hand firmly planted on the ribcage throughout it all. It strained him to continually Siphon those multiple Essences through his body, but at least he didn’t have to shape them. He simply held on, not daring to let go. The pleasure he felt from the Emerald kept all exhaustion at bay, but he reminded himself that the feeling was an illusion. A lethal one. He wondered if he would keel over dead when this was done.

  If that’s the price I must pay to save Sinive, then so be it.

  He spared a moment to glance at her, as he had been doing at intervals during the fight. But this time when he looked at Sinive, he spotted small red globes of light around her stasis pod. White energy streamed from her body into those globes.

  He realized then that the whole assault had been a distraction: these smaller targets were the main threat. They were sucking out Sinive’s life force as it tried to reenter her body. That wasn’t in the memories...

  “Sinive!” Tane said.

  He sensed movement at the periphery of his vision as others in his party looked back, but they could only spare a moment of attention, because the big insect continued its main assault. Lyra was swinging her Essence ax left and right, while Chase was raising works of Deflect as the creature unleashed concentrated bursts of stinging insects at them.

  In truth, Tane was the least involved in the battle. He had stayed between the ribcage while some of the others had moved out into the swamp to meet the attacking heads, and because of his position, he was closest to Sinive, and thus the obvious choice to stave off the red globes.

  The question was, how?

  He didn’t want to risk firing an Essence Missile at Sinive, not that close, nor an Essence Bolt from the ax.

  Tane had purposely left a disconnected rib bone in the swamp underneath the ribcage, lying horizontally so that it protruded slightly from the murky water, giving him a path he could follow to the stasis pod.

  Tane released the Dark and stepped out of the White to hang the inactive beam hilt at his belt; he felt no drop in stamina, thanks to the continual bliss the Emerald suffused him with.

  He placed his free hand onto the horizontally lying rib bone. He let go of the vertical rib so that he was Siphoning Emerald through the horizontal osseous alone—it wasn’t connected to the main skeleton so he felt the drop in Synthate immediately, which registered as a reduction in pleasure across his body.

  Ignoring the change, he slid his hands across the surface of the horizontal bone as he waded toward Sinive, not daring to let go of the Emerald.

  As he made his way toward her, he wondered vaguely why the surreptitious attack from those red globes didn’t match his memory of the ritual. The life feeders had obviously changed tactics since the mind imprint had been made.

  When he reached Sinive, keeping one hand on the partially submerged rib bone, he retrieved his beam hilt and reactivated the Essence ax; he used the White blade to attack the energy leeches. They scattered easily as he swept his blade through them. Those that he actually touched with the Essence ax dissipated.

  The remaining red globes promptly returned, resuming their leeching—as evident by the white ribbons of energy streaming from Sinive’s body. Tane swiped at them again with his weapon and once more they scattered, only to return. Thus Tane had to keep doing that, continually swatting them aside while staying slightly crouched so that his other hand remained in contact with the bone at all times.

  Gia came to his side, helping him bat away the creatures with her spear. He was thankful of that, because there seemed too many for him to handle alone.

  The ribcage above him shook violently and, glancing to his right, Tane saw that the heads were rapidly pummeling the defenders now. Lyra and Chase were barely holding a Deflect field against the latest insect swarm salvo, while G’allanthamas and Jed were crawling across the giant necks and inflicting what damage they could, Jed with his Chrysalium sword, G’allanthamas with a blunt weapon the dweller had fashioned out of a small tree. Nebb remained in cover behind one of the ribcages, warding off the heads with his pointed wooden staff whenever any came his way.

  A brightness drew Tane’s attention to the far left, near the shoreline. There, amid the dark that surrounded the swamp, a rip in spacetime formed. He thought it was a distortion tunnel at first, but if it was, it was unlike any he had ever seen. Ordinarily, distortion tunnels offered a glimpse of the area they led to: this one swirled with iridescent colors. Then he realized that maybe the tunnel was indeed showing the destination: it merely wasn’t of this universe.

  He had been expecting dwellers, so he was surprised when a large... entity emerged. It was about twice as tall as a human, or about half as big as the giant multi-headed insect that assailed them. The head, torso, and two arms were made of gray rock with white and blue veins crisscrossing the surface, veins that glowed. But the rest of the being was metal, as if it wore a battle suit, or was some kind of macabre mix of creature and machine, because below the rock portion, the main body was like an armored tank. Small turrets emerged from either side like a gunship, promising destruction. At the bottom of the tank, where four wheels would have resided were this a human vehicle, instead were two pairs of treads.

  He tried to ID it, but got nothing of course.

  Lyra immediately focused on the newcomer, launching an Essence Missile at its turrets. But her missiles were weak at the moment—she was obviously close to exhaustion.

  The rock-metal being raised its own version of Deflect, and Lyra’s missiles were batted away. But before the newcomer could unleash whatever was contained within those turrets at the Volur, the giant insect steered two of its necks toward the entity, drawing its attention.

  The rock-metal entity fired streaks of molten slag at the giant insect from those turrets, and where they struck, the impact areas either transformed to stone or became coated in it. In moments one of the insect’s giant heads was completely covered in stone and it dropped like a dead weight into the swamp, drawing the other heads and the neck they were joined to down with it. The resultant impact caused an impressive splash, and sent a powerful wave traveling across the swamp.

  The giant insect launched two more of its heads at the newcomer, apparently gauging it a threat similar to if not bigger than Tane and his companions. At that point, Tane had to wonder if the rock-metal entity was friend or foe.

  He suspected the latter.

  During all of this, with Gia’s help, Tane continued to defend against the red globes that were leeching Sinive’s life force.

  Without warning the swamp beside him erupted and a molten creature burst forth from the surface; it quickly solidified into a humanoid made of rock, with glowing red eyes. Tane brought his Essence ax around and sliced through it, breaking the rock creature apart.

  Tane cast his gaze about, searching the edges of the swamp for S’Wraathar, thinking at first that the Graaz’dhen Amaranth had created it. But S’Wraathar was nowhere to be found.

  Meanwhile, the rock-metal entity continued to stave off the giant multi-headed insect, drawing most of its attention.

  More molten creatures emerged from the swamp around the ribcage, and they solidified, approaching Tane and the others from all sides. Their red eyes gleamed with hunger.

  16

  Tane realized the rock-metal entity was responsible for the appearance of these new creatures, and was very likely the same being that had given S’Wraathar the power to summon similar beings. In fact, S’Wraathar had probably led that rock-metal entity here.

  And when the creatures began to attack his friends, Tane knew without a doubt that the new alien was indeed a foe.

  The giant insect divided its concentration between the entity and Tane’s companions now, so that they had to defend against an attack on two fronts. Fortunately, the multi-headed insect also assaulted the smaller rock creatures whenever they got in the way; Nebb took advantage of that behavior by firing his sawed-off plasma rifle at point blank range at the rock beings, forcing them to back aw
ay—usually right into the maws of a waiting insectile head.

  Sinive still showed no signs of life. Tane had only succeeded in eliminating half of the red globes; the rest had learned to anticipate both his blows and Gia’s, and usually swerved away just in time when he struck, only to return a moment later.

  He felt a sudden pressure on his right thigh and when he saw the head of a white worm jut up from the swamp below his hip, only to latch its suckers onto his spacesuit there, he realized the big insect had launched more larvae into the murky waters, and one had just wrapped around his leg.

  The larva yanked hard at his thigh, and Tane nearly lost his footing. If another one had grabbed him at the same time, he had no doubt that he would’ve been sucked into the swamp entirely, as had happened to Lyra and Jed earlier.

  He ignored the creature, and tried to concentrate on swatting away the red globes from Sinive, but he couldn’t help the growing feeling of despair inside him: it cut through the Emerald pleasure suffusing his body like a poisoned blade.

  They were going to lose this. In his heart of hearts, he knew they were. He should have waited until he was a higher level before attempting to Revive Sinive.

  When he failed, Sinive would remain dead, and he’d never have another chance to Revive her again.

  No.

  He refused to give up so easily. Refused.

  He had come all this way, fought tooth and nail; she deserved to live damn it. More than anything.

  He needed something that could stop the big insect and the rock creatures. Essence Missiles would help, but without a large Chrysalium source nearby, they wouldn’t cause enough damage. That was obvious now. Especially considering how exhausted he and the other Essenceworkers had become. The Missiles of Lyra and Chase had become dim sticks of light, versus the blinding javelins they had launched at the start of the fight.

  Maybe I should have waited until the ships were repaired after all, at the very least to land them closer for easy access to their hulls.

  But he refused to second guess himself. He had been right to perform Revive when he did. That was all he could tell himself. All he could believe.

  Perhaps there was another work that would save them. Something from the Emerald Essence. He was in contact with essentially the equivalent of a Chrysalium source after all, in that grazer rib bone. He didn’t need the full skeleton to create what he needed. The current rib bone beneath him would more than suffice.

  And though he had already created one work of that Essence—an incredibly complex, and no doubt tiring work—he felt fine. Surely he could invoke another work of the Emerald?

  His training shouted at him that no, he was done, and that the small, addictive pleasure he felt was an illusion. His body was ready to give out on him.

  But he ignored the muted cries inside him. He had no choice.

  Forgive me, Sinive.

  He began joining the tips of the green electrical bolts that only he saw around himself. He expected the grazer to fight him, but it did not, perhaps because he had already parted the veil several minutes ago. Or perhaps because it wanted him to create this next work.

  Time slowed, and in moments he had created a small, glowing structure reminiscent of a brain with four interconnected quadrants, or quadraspheres. He set it into this reality just above the swamp, midway between the multi-headed insect and the rock-metal alien.

  In seconds a large shimmering being appeared, comparable in size to the giant insect. With four thick, tree-trunk legs, a long neck and tail, and a torso that looked like two huge stacked barrels tied together, Tane was reminded of the gargantuans he had seen wandering the plains in Tiberius’ memory of his visit to the archaeoceti. It had four eyes with horns forming a curved crown above them, with a bony plate fanning outward from the base of the skull. Its slightly translucent skin was made of shimmering silver and gold scales flecked with diamond dust.

  It was the grazer to whom this particular bone belonged, a being that existed now only as pure energy.

  The grazer snarled in outrage, apparently enraged by the fact it had been dragged from the peace and quiet of its universe and into this chaotic one.

  It promptly breathed green electricity at the multi-headed insect, sending up plumes of smoke from the creature’s thorax where the bolts struck. The insect howled in pain as huge black marks formed across its skin.

  A molten missile from the rock-metal entity struck the grazer, diverting its attention to the smaller alien. The grazer promptly leaped at the rock-metal entity and wrestled it to the ground.

  Jed and G’allanthamas continued bashing away at the badly injured giant insect, which had stopped assaulting the ribcage entirely. The pair darted between the different necks and heads, blunt force instruments flashing.

  Tane and Gia continued to concentrate on diverting the small red globes that were assailing the stasis pod. Nebb joined them—all the smaller rock creatures had been defeated by then, courtesy of Chase and Lyra, who were able to concentrate on the beings with the distraction the grazer provided. With their help, Tane managed to keep the red globes from further draining Sinive.

  Minutes passed, but it seemed like only moments, because just like that the battle was over. The multi-headed insect, grievously injured, collapsed dead under a few final blows from Jed and G’allanthamas, who together hacked off the last head.

  With the giant insect gone, the small red spheres, which hadn’t seeped any life from Sinive for quite some time now, faded from around the stasis pod, vanishing entirely. The white worm that had attached itself to Tane’s leg let go, and sank into the swamp.

  The rock-metal entity meanwhile created that swirling distortion tunnel of iridescent colors behind itself and fled under the continual assaults of the grazer. Before the grazer could follow the alien through, the tunnel closed.

  With the last of the enemies dispatched, the grazer turned toward the ribcage where Tane and the others sheltered.

  Then it unleashed a spray of green electricity at Tane. Nebb and Lyra dodged behind nearby rib bones, but Tane had no time to move. He covered his face with one arm, fully expecting to die.

  But the electricity never hit him. Outside the ribcage, Lyra had created a cone of Deflect; it was weak, but it managed to do the job. Only a few bolts got through, and those served only to blacken his spacesuit in spots.

  The grazer roared in anger, and then trampled forward, sending up plumes of swamp water with each footfall. Lyra moved out of the way and the grazer rammed its head against the ribcage. It was too big to squeeze through the gaps, but the entire structure tilted upward on that side before crashing down again. Tane thought the grazer had been trying to overturn the ribcage so it could get at him.

  He reminded himself that he had already broken the beast when he had parted the veil. At least, partially so.

  “Easy, boy!” Tane said. “Easy. It’s me. Remember the sugar coated tree?”

  The grazer exhaled twice loudly, its rage unappeased, and slammed its head into the ribcage even harder. Once more it tilted upward, forming a gap almost wide enough for the grazer to fit through before crashing down again.

  Tane raised a hand. “It’s me.” He forced his will onto the rib bone beneath him, through the jagged edges of the veil, just as he did when commanding the dark artifacts.

  It worked. The grazer stopped bashing its translucent head against the ribcage, and simply stood there, huge flanks rising and falling with each inhale and exhale.

  And then it disappeared.

  The five minute summoning window had passed.

  The darkness that enveloped the swamp lifted, and daylight returned.

  He turned his attention toward the woman he had given everything to save.

  Sinive existed in darkness. She didn’t float, didn’t sit, didn’t stand... merely existed.

  A thoughtless eternity passed.

  A spark appeared in the infinite blackness around her. She didn’t see, hear, or feel it. It was just there.
She finally felt something, for the first time in eons. A familiar presence. She knew this spark, and it cared for her. It grew bigger with each moment until it finally consumed her.

  The darkness was replaced by a rainforest. She was kneeling next to a stream. Above her, the trees were in the full blossom of spring. So many colors—but mostly violet, blue and white. The scent of lilacs tickled her nostrils, and songbirds chirped ebulliently nearby.

  The wind picked up momentarily, and several tiny petals among the blossoms above her rained down like confetti.

  She washed her face with the cold water. It was so good to feel the coolness of that water on her cheeks, to feel anything again. The rays of the sun on her face, warming her skin anew. The hope for the future that beat in her breast.

  She held her hand in the water, and felt the growing numbness as the frigid liquid sapped away the heat from her fingers. She was thrilled to even have hands and fingers again.

  She stared idly off into space, filled with peace. She wasn’t sure how long she stayed in that pose. A few seconds. A hundred years.

  And then she sensed movement at the periphery of her vision. She turned her head and saw Tane standing there. He had a smile on his face. He was holding out his hand to her.

  “You came for me,” Sinive said, grinning back at him. She stood up. “I knew you would.”

  She went to him and wrapped her hand around his own. His fingers felt so very warm compared to hers. She wasn’t sure if it was because she had drenched her palm in the river for so long, or if her flesh was inherently cold. Though she wasn’t sure why the latter would be the case.

  He squeezed her hand and then darkness enveloped her once more. She felt an incredible sense of loss. Like she had been reborn, and now was gone back to oblivion.