by Jack Castle
Lahmu saw the older Awumpai, Fu-Mar, roar wildly when Hu-Nan was hit, but several Tripods used the distraction and swarmed him.
“FILTHY ANIMAL,” Khaos hissed as he removed the sword from his back. He spat at the dead Awumpai and turned to deal with the incoming plane.
But the plane was closer than expected. It had lined up right on Khaos and sped toward him with its guns blazing.
Lahmu watched in horror as Khaos’s body convulsed violently again and again from the plane’s projectiles that blew threw his body. The Adamah’s plane touched down and skidded across the palace floor, heading right for his Atum.
Khaos’s outstretched arms did little to protect him when the Adamah’s plane careened into him and, like a giant carpenter’s hammer, smashed his body into the wall.
Lahmu saw that the Mukarian bowmen’s eyes no longer glowed, and the Tripods, now leaderless, wandered about confusedly.
Captain Harry Reed quickly climbed out of his plane’s cockpit and drew his pistol. He needn’t have bothered.
The dark deity wasn’t even visible. His body was embedded in the wall behind the plane’s crumpled nose. The Tripods kept their distance from Harry, and none of the bowmen fired arrows at him.
He saw Hu-Nan’s impaled body on the floor and was about to run to his dead friend’s side when he suddenly glimpsed something descending from the ceiling at a gentle rate. It wasn’t glass or falling debris.
It was Mac.
Although her hands, face, and hair were scorched, she didn’t look the worse for wear. “I thought you were dead!” Harry exclaimed.
“Duh,” Mac replied and pointed to her back. “Parachute.” She had finally one-upped him in the quip department.
Harry ran over and embraced her in a bear hug that lifted her feet off the floor.
After the embrace, Mac asked him, “Leo and Tae?”
Harry shook his head. “I don’t know. I just got here myself.” His face turned solemn. “But Hu-Nan didn’t make it.”
Mac touched his cheeks, which he knew were damp with tears. Fu-Mar had moved to his fallen friend’s body and was removing the trident.
“Oh, how sweet,” Khaos said sarcastically from inside the wall.
Harry heard the loud sound of metal scraping and turned to see the twelve-foot demigod push the plane backward and free himself. Harry noted that Khaos’s massive wounds were healing but at an extremely slow rate. At least I managed to hurt him, Harry thought.
“DID YOU THINK YOU STOPPED ME?” the dark deity asked, stepping toward Harry. “YOU HAVE ONLY DELAYED THE INEVITABLE!” Khaos limped, but Harry knew that the dark god still had more than enough power to kill them. Harry decided that he would go down fighting just the same.
“DO YOU THINK I SURVIVED A BATTLE WITH THE ONE TRUE FATHER HIMSELF TO BE SLAIN BY THE LIKES OF YOU?”
Harry pulled Mac behind him, and Fu-Mar and the small handful of remaining Mooks encircled them protectively.
Atum-Khaos turned to his army of Tripods and Mukarian bowmen and commanded, “FINISH THEM!”
As the army closed in, Harry noted that the bowmen’s eyes were once again filled with black hate.
#
Back in the inner sanctum, Leo fought for his life, and he was losing.
Towering over him, Tripod-Stein smashed Leo and his tiny sword down again and again. Near exhaustion, Leo backed into an alcove that contained a large table and chairs. He threw the chairs in front of him, but this did little to slow down the menacing Stein. Ducking a swipe, Leo dodged out of the way of Stein’s descending trident, which smashed the heavy table into two parts.
Leo was trapped in the alcove. There was nowhere else to go. In a desperate move that surprised even him, he flipped the short sword around, so he was holding the blade, and flung the sword at Stein’s head.
The offensive move surprised Stein, too. He didn’t have time to dodge out of the way, and the blade caught his forearm, which he lifted to block his head.
Tripod-Stein dropped his trident and howled in pain. Grimacing, he stumbled backward and attempted to pull the sword out of his arm, but the wound bled too much. His back still to the wall, Leo dove toward Stein’s dropped trident. Stein stomped after him while throwing overturned chairs and pieces of broken table out of the way.
Leo started to lift the heavy trident from the floor, but before he could, Stein appeared above him. Stein reared back on his hind legs and lunged forward to trample the young astronaut with his mighty front hoof.
Leo abandoned the trident and rolled out of the way just as Tripod-Stein’s hoof slammed down on the weapon, pinning it to the floor. Leo backed away until he was against the wall once more.
Looking for a weapon and finding none, Leo tried to make a run for it. As he did so, Stein impaled him with the recovered trident. The blow lifted him off the floor and pinned him to the wall. While it hurt like hell, only one of the trident’s points had pierced Leo’s narrow waist. The point had gone through just beneath his ribs and to the right. In a daze, Leo marveled that hadn’t been a killing blow and that he wasn’t dead yet after all that he’d endured. Stein kept Leo pinned to the wall and moved closer, putting his face right next to Leo’s. “Déjà vu,” he said.
Leo felt Stein’s hot breath on his face.
“Now what does this remind me of?” Stein said, turning his head to the side. “Oh yeah, this was the exact same way your friend Tae looked — just before I sent him to hell.”
Although in excruciating pain, Leo noticed that the Mukarian short sword still stuck fast in Stein’s forearm. “Then tell Tae I said hello,” Leo said through clenched teeth. Ignoring the pain in his stomach, he ripped the blade from Stein’s arm and stabbed the Tripod in the throat.
Tripod-Stein dropped Leo and the trident. He stumbled backward, clutching the short sword in his throat, and finally fell over onto his side.
Leo slid down the wall and landed atop of a pile of rubble. With great effort, he removed the trident from his midsection and threw it aside, where it clanged to the floor.
Through slatted eyes, he watched Tripod-Stein in the throes of death. As the darkness began to form a tunnel around Leo’s vision, the little girl approached him once more. He blinked the slow blink of someone on the brink of consciousness and saw that she knelt in front of him.
“Wake up, Leo. It’s not time to die,” she said.
#
In the audience chamber, Harry, Mac, the Awumpai, and the remaining Mooks somehow still held their own. While Fu-Mar and Atum-Khaos battled it out in a clash of the titans, Harry and Mac kept the Tripods at bay using their .45’s and the Mooks.
However, Fu-Mar was tiring against Atum-Khaos, and the Mooks were rapidly falling beneath the archers’ arrows. Harry knew that it wouldn’t be long before he and Mac were on their own.
As he put another two rounds in a Tripod’s eye, Harry ducked behind a fallen pillar for cover and was surprised to see Asha there. “Asha!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here? I thought you were dead.”
Asha looked at him sadly and explained, “I am Harry.”
Mac, who reloaded her pistol nearby, asked, “Who are you talking to?” Before he could answer, she had already drawn another bead on a Tripod.
“Harry, you have to go inside the inner sanctum and help Leo,” Asha said.
Looking at the bowmen and Tripods around him, Harry said, “Are you kidding me? We’ll never make it back there.”
“Yes, you will.” Asha stood up in the line of fire. Harry was tempted to pull her back down, but he saw an arrow pass through her transparent form.
Asha’s spirit form raised high above the battle and became visible to all. Harry saw that the bowmen, though still possessed by Atum, halted their attack when they saw her. Harry didn’t speak Asha’s language fluently, but he thought he heard her say, “My brethren, Atum-Khaos
has blinded you. But now you are free from his lies. Free to follow him or the SongBird Goddess. You are free to choose, as the one true Father intended all along.”
Just then, a Tripod leaped over the group’s crude stockade. Mac emptied one in its chest before she was mule-kicked in the ribs, which sent her sprawling. Harry fired his last two rounds at it only to be knocked to floor by the butt-end of a trident. The Tripod reared up to trample Harry underfoot, but twelve well-placed arrows suddenly hit its body.
It seemed that the Mukarian bowmen had made their choice.
Harry looked up and saw Khaos ready to behead a beaten Fu-Mar, execution style, but twenty arrows abruptly pierced the deity’s back. It was an annoyance to the demigod more than anything else, but it still gave Fu-Mar time to spring away.
Asha looked back down at Harry. “Free the SongBird Goddess!” she said.
Mac saw the bowmen suddenly change sides, and as Harry helped her to her feet, she asked, “What the hell is going on?”
“An old friend stopped by. C’mon. We’ve got to find Leo.” Harry led Mac and Fu-Mar toward the inner sanctum, and the Mukarian bowmen covered their retreat.
#
Leo successfully picked up Atum’s scepter. He pointed it at the pi-shaped wooden doorframe in the stone wall behind the throne but really didn’t expect anything to happen. To his surprise, a beam of light shot out of the scepter and formed a swirling vortex beneath the archway.
Leo heard a sound behind him and turned to see Harry, Mac, and Fu-Mar enter the inner sanctum. Atum-Khaos and an army of Tripods were hot on their heels.
Harry and Fu-Mar barred the heavy doors behind them, but Tripod pikes and axes immediately began hacking at the doors.
“Is there another way out of here?” Harry yelled to Mac.
“I don’t see one.”
Before Harry could come up with a plan, Fu-Mar ran to one of the pillars that framed the doorway and leaned into it as Samson did at the Coliseum. Within moments, the giant Awumpai had knocked over the massive pillar and caused the threshold’s ceiling to collapse, blocking the advance of Khaos and his army. But they knew it wouldn’t hold off the army forever.
Harry and Mac ran up the main aisle to Leo and saw Stein dead on the floor. “You okay, Leo?” Mac asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Where’s Tae?”
Leo shook his head. “He didn’t make it.”
“What?” The word was strangled and Leo swallowed beneath Mac’s stare. He could see her processing the information through her disbelief. He struggled to bury the thought of his friend and focus on the present crisis.
He turned to Harry and he said, “Your friend Asha told me that the SongBird Goddess is through there.” He pointed at the molecular whirlpool. “She wants us to free her.”
“Yeah, I know; I saw her, too,” Harry replied.
Loud crashing noises emanated from the sanctum’s entrance as Khaos and his followers worked their way through. Fu-Mar took his place just inside the doors and readied himself for combat.
Mac told Harry, “Go. We’ll hold off Khaos as long as we can.”
Harry checked to see that his pistols were loaded and took the heavy scepter from Leo. “Okay, I’ll be right back,” he said. After giving Mac a wink and a smile, and Leo a slap on the back, he dove through the portal.
Seconds later, there was a loud explosion near the doorway. Before the cloud of dust settled, Khaos and his army of Tripods were walking briskly toward them.
Chapter 31
The Europa Moon Temple
Captain Reed’s body flew out of the portal at a high rate of speed. He tucked and rolled at the last minute, his boots and arms spraying white sand into the air as he came roughly to a stop.
He quickly pushed to his feet and scanned with his pistol. Looking around the circular room with the round pool at its center, he realized he recognized this place.
He had been here before.
Just as he had in his vision, Harry walked over to the circular pit filled with water and looked down. He saw the SongBird Goddess floating beneath the surface and two, six-foot long serpents slithering around her. The goddess looked up at Harry, and he saw her agony. He could just make out the heavy chain that held her beneath the water line.
Hefting the scepter and taking deep breaths, he readied himself to dive in the pool. He didn’t see the vortex behind him flash when someone stepped through, but the SongBird Goddess must have, for he saw sudden fear in her eyes. Suddenly, a single shot rang out, and a .45-caliber bullet passed through his lung.
Harry dropped the scepter, and it landed at the pit’s edge. He staggered but managed to turn around to face the person who had shot him in the back.
Leo stood there with the pistol in his outstretched hand. His eyes had turned completely black — just like the eyes of the twelve-foot tall being that stepped through the portal to stand beside the young man.
“YOU HAVE DONE WELL,” the deity said while placing a fatherly hand on Leo’s shoulder.
Harry couldn’t stand any longer and collapsed to his knees. He rolled over onto his back, his hand instinctively covering his bloody wound.
“NOW, BRING ME THE SCEPTER OF POWER!” Khaos commanded Leo.
#
Leo swelled with pride. He had pleased Khaos, and that was all that mattered to him. He moved to the pit’s edge and bent down to retrieve his master’s scepter.
He heard rapid, shallow breathing nearby. It was Harry. He was still alive. Leo saw blood pooling where the bullet had passed through his friend’s chest.
Why did I do that? Some small part of Leo’s brain wondered. Why would I shoot someone like Harry in the back? He looked down again at Harry, who was dying at his feet, and the voice in his head grew louder. Leo had grown up without a father, so he didn’t know what it was like to have one, but if he were to choose a father, it would be someone just like Harry.
And Khaos had made him shoot Harry in the back.
Rather than pick up the scepter, as his master had commanded, Leo knelt down next to Harry. “C’mon, Harry. I’m getting you out of here,” he said. There had to be some sort of doctor back at the palace.
“I can’t, kid. My legs don’t work,” Harry replied. A smile flickered at his lips.
The front of Harry’s shirt was completely red with his blood. Leo was surprised that Harry was still conscious. He shook his head in remorse. No! Not Harry, too.
“It’s okay, Leo. You’ve got to save the SongBird Goddess,” Harry said, resting his bloodstained hand on Leo’s jacket.
“No, I don’t. I have to save you,” Leo said matter-of-factly.
Harry no longer seemed to feel the pain, and he smiled up at Leo. “Son, listen to me. Remember that talk we had at the ruins about some things being more important than one’s own life?”
Leo wiped his tears away and bobbed his head. “Yes,” he said.
“Well, this is one of those times.” Harry coughed and clutched his jacket tightly as a spasm of pain racked his body. After it subsided, Harry’s lopsided grin crossed his face one last time. “Save her, Leo.” His body then went limp and lay lifeless.
Leo covered his face with the palm of his hand. Mac, Tae, Brett, Stein, the Awumpai — they were all dead. He was the only one left. He began to cry.
But then Leo felt anger brewing inside him. That monster made me destroy the most decent man I ever met in my life.
Leo spied Khaos’s scepter, which lay on the edge of the circular pit.
“HE WAS WEAK,” Khaos said. “NOW BRING ME THE SCEPTER.”
Leo wiped away his tears on the back of his hand and picked up the fallen scepter. Funny, he thought, I couldn’t even touch it before without being shocked, but now I can lift it easily. He smiled at Atum-Khaos and took one step backward into the watery pool.
&nbs
p; The heavy scepter, like an anchor, took him immediately to the bottom of the pit. He knew it wouldn’t be long before Khaos dove in the pool after him, so Leo raised the scepter and pointed it at the chain that restrained the beautiful goddess.
As the dragon-headed serpents swam towards him, he heard a loud splash overhead. Khaos had dived in. Leo knew he should have been scared out of his gourd, but one look at the beautiful SongBird Goddess before him gave him a sense of inner peace.
Even as the first serpent’s tail encircled his waist and Khaos’s massive hand clamped down on the top of his skull, Leo was unafraid. This was his moment. This was his time to accomplish something greater than the needs and wants of his own mortal life.
As the serpent squeezed his waist and Khaos tightened his grip, Leo aimed the scepter at the thick chain and fired. A brilliant light blinded him. His vision returned just in time to see the chain that held the SongBird Goddess fall to the pit’s floor.
#
Outside the pit, it was quiet for a moment, almost serene. If someone had entered the temple at that moment, he or she would have been unaware that a battle for worlds had just taken place in the small circular pit in the center of the room.
And then the contents of the pit erupted from the hole as though someone had thrown twenty grenades into the pool of water, and they had all detonated simultaneously.
The room once again fell silent. Leo, however, heard a loud ringing in his ears as he slowly returned to consciousness. When he opened his eyes, a mouth full of razor-sharp spikes snapped at him.
Instinctively, Leo jerked his head away from the serpent. Its body flailed — a fish out of water. He quickly scooted away and saw that the second serpent lay motionless with its neck at an odd angle.
Rising to his feet, Leo saw that he wasn’t the only one who had survived the explosion. Khaos was regaining consciousness near a wall that Leo recognized immediately; it was the same wall that had started it all, the one with the strange symbols.
Khaos spied him and leaped to his feet, and Leo ran to the other side of the pit, searching for an exit. In the time it took him to realize that there was none, Khaos was upon him.
