“This won’t hold me, you idiot,” Levi struck the shield with a large blade of water but not a single scratch formed on it. His face went into confusion and fear as he realized he really couldn’t take the shield down.
“No worries. Take your time in there,” Q smiled and turned back to face Razy, who was slowly moving towards them in a daze. “You ready?” he asked Taylor.
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“On three,” he said. “One. Two. Three!”
Two blasts of white and black energy shot towards Razy. The Dark Knight struggled against the pressure but kept moving towards them.
“Stronger!” Q yelled as he put all his effort into his attack.
The energy swirled around Razy, covering him in a vortex of the two colors. The convergence point of the energy suddenly overloaded and a huge explosion shook the air, sending a flurry of dark smoke along the desert sands. A glowing figure slowly floated through the air, and onto the ground. Q and Taylor rushed to him. Razy lay on the soft sand, his face peaceful and calm.
“I think we did it,” Taylor gasped in exhaustion, her face showing that the attack had taken quite a toll on her body.
Chris ran towards them. “Are you okay?”
“What are you doing?!” Q yelled. “You can’t leave the Empress alone!”
“I’m right here,” Andrea walked up to him.
He saw Commander Reagan and Lokai head towards them as well. All the White Knights, including Albion, had rushed back into the tower.
They retreated? Q wondered. That’s odd.
“Razy is completely fine now,” Chris smiled. “I just did an energy scan on him and there was no trace left of the Tenebrae EcQuest parasite!”
“So it took two sorcerers to heal that disease huh,” he chuckled. “Boy is that guy lucky.”
“What do we do about this one?” Commander Lokai pointed to Levi, who was still trapped inside the shield that Q had cast.
“We take him hostage, just like we planned,” Q said.
“Hostage?” Levi laughed. “I’d suggest you take a good look around you, Q.”
A purple sphere of light shot out of the tower and struck the shield around Levi. The shield of light disintegrated, and smoke surrounded the area. Fear surged into Q’s mind. He knew exactly what sort of weapon had just fired that projectile. And he didn’t like the answer one bit.
“Looks like we’ve moved into round two, Q,” Levi’s shadow lay within the smoke, his voice husky and deep. “It’s Pandora Cannon Time.”
***
5-4
The Pandora Cannon, the name resonated through Taylor’s mind.
Chris used her Elementa of Wind to create a blast of wind and clear all the smoke. Levi was nowhere to be seen. Taylor didn’t know where he had disappeared to, but she knew they didn’t have enough time to worry about him.
No sooner had smoke disappeared than the noise of sliding metal flooded the air. Taylor turned to the tower. The outer walls on the upper half had opened up, and massive cannons peeked out of from every floor. The tower whirred as the cannons rotated around, all of them shifting to face Taylor, Q, and everyone else.
“This is really bad,” Q mumbled.
“Can you take those things down?” Taylor asked.
“What? No way,” he said. “They have about fifty Pandora Cannons on that tower. I can’t save us from all of them.”
“You can take down the tower at least can’t you?”
“I doubt it,” he said. “I used up a lot of my energy getting rid of Razy’s parasite.”
“We need a proper defensive strategy,” Commander Reagan said.
“And fast,” Lokai added.
A high pitched noise pierced the night sky. Taylor looked up and saw spheres of purple begin to form at the mouth of all the cannons.
“Oh dear god,” her face froze. “The first wave is coming.”
“They never give me a break,” Q sighed. He threw his hands straight up, with palms facing the stars. A dome of light covered them, and another, larger dome formed around them all.
“I thought you said you couldn’t stop an entire wave of attacks,” Taylor raised an eyebrow.
“I can’t,” he sighed.
“Did you forget about me Taylor?” Andrea walked up to Q. She moved her hands in an arc and a dome of darkness formed around the larger dome. They now had three layers of shields protecting them from the attack.
“You don’t have to create a shield, don’t worry,” Q smiled at Taylor. “I know you’re not used to handling your sorceress powers. Plus, we need someone to conserve their energy in case we need to launch a counter-attack.”
Taylor nodded. The high pitched noises from before ceased and were replaced by silence. She looked over to see large spheres of radiant purple glowing all around the tower. She had seen the power of a single Pandora Cannon before. Her entire being shuddered at the thought of fifty of them attacking at once.
The silence under the night sky lasted but a few moments longer.
And then the attack began.
The dark sky was lit up by brilliant bursts of purple, a purple that represented nothing but death.
“Hold on guys,” Q said.
The tower fired its first wave of projectiles one arc at a time. The first arc struck the outermost shield. Andrea’s face contorted as she struggled to keep up with all of them. With every blast that her shield took, more of it began to crumble.
All of a sudden she collapsed to the floor, utterly exhausted. Her shield shattered, dissolving into the wind.
“My turn,” Q shouted. Taylor could almost see his mind working overtime as he gave his shield his utmost concentration.
The second arc fired. Another ten projectiles hit his outer shield, and shattered it as well.
“They’re too strong, damn it!” he yelled.
Taylor had never heard him express this much frustration before. She had never heard him admit than an opponent was overwhelming him with their strength. Was the Pandora cannon too much for them to handle after all?
The third arc launched. About thirty projectiles hit the final shield.
Q screamed out in frustration as he struggled to keep his shield intact. Commander Reagan and Commander Lokai looked around helplessly, wondering if there was anything they could do to help out.
Taylor glanced up at the shield, just as the final projectile of the third wave sank into it.
And the shield shattered.
Their final line of defense was gone. They were all sitting ducks now.
“Run run run!” Q yelled, charging out.
The second wave of projectiles was not shot in an arc but all at once, and much faster than the first wave. It was almost as though the enemy had predicted exactly when Q’s shields would go down.
The only thing left to do is dodge every last attack, Taylor clenched her fists.
She watched as the second wave, the largest of them all, fired towards them. The projectiles were half as large as she so they were easy to dodge, but the moment they hit the ground, all hell broke loose.
Taylor and everyone else had completely forgotten just how devastating the Pandora Cannon could be. The projectiles exploded the moment they hit the ground. Taylor felt her feet lift off the surface and she was projected straight through the desert air, landing hard on the sand and creating a deep trail in it as she slid to a stop.
She picked herself up. Her body felt sore and worn out. Her mind felt even worse. Every moment she felt the urge to give up, to give herself to the enemy, to stop all this violence, to just stop it all.
She latched onto her mother’s sword to give her comfort.
Only, it wasn’t there anymore.
Her eyes widened and she immediately scrambled to locate it. She saw a sheath with a broken strap jut out of the sand a few yards away from her, in the groove she had just made.
Must have broken off when I slid through, she thought. Her mind was calm for a second. And then she noticed
the purple projectile heading right for her sword.
“NO!” she screamed. Her legs pushed her towards it, but she was too far away. It was too late. She watched as the purple demon neared her precious possession. Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision.
All of a sudden, a streak of green appeared right before the sheath. Her eyes widened when she realized who it was.
“CHRIS!” Taylor yelled.
The girl pulled the sword out of the sand, completely unaware of the projectile that was now only a few inches from her.
It’s over, Taylor’s mind echoed. She’s gone.
Out of nowhere, a burly man in a Dark Suit dived in between Chris and the purple Pandora projectile. Taylor’s mind screamed as the projectile sank into him. He fell to the ground, paralyzed. His life energy was far too strong for the Pandora Cannon to take him out instantly. The projectile would take its time to finish him off.
“Dad!” Chris screamed. “Don’t! You can’t leave me like this!”
Commander Reagan placed his hand on his daughter’s. “I will always be with you, Chris,” he said. “Always.”
“Please,” tears formed in her once emotionless eyes. “I don’t want this.”
The Commander’s body began to glow. The Pandora projectile had begun to tear him down.
He let go of her hand, and pointed to the stars, “I’m going to go meet mom,” he smiled for a second.
And then he disappeared.
The projectile disintegrated him into a shower of stardust, unable to completely annihilate a man with such powerful life energy.
Taylor fell to her knees, her eyes watching as the dust floated into the air, and disappeared into the night sky. The projectiles kept crashing into the surface. They exploded all around her but she could no longer hear their noise.
Rage filled her mind, anger consumer her very being. The chains of her morality broke open. She grabbed Valkyrie’s sheath, and walked towards the tower.
“Taylor!” Q and Andrea ran to her from her left.
She ignored them and kept walking.
“Taylor,” Q stood in front of her.
She pushed him aside and strode forward. A tingling sensation came over her. She turned around and saw Q hit her with a warm beam of energy from his Elementa of Light. Her body was absorbing his very last bits of energy. She could feel an amazing surge of energy flow through her veins.
“At least do it the right way,” he mumbled, his head dizzy with the effort.
“Go,” Andrea smiled, and helped steady Q.
Taylor turned around without another word. She heard the sound of the Pandora Cannon activating itself again.
Oh no you don’t, her walk turned into a run. She pulled Valkyrie out of its sheath. Her mind concentrated on all of her energy, summoning it from the deepest parts within her and infusing it into her weapon.
A dark, vengeful fire covered the nightmare black blade. The once dull, golden runes now glowed brighter than ever. She felt the sword vibrate in her hands, she heard it hum in her ears, she felt the weapon become a part of her body, a part of her mind.
Forgive me, mother, she thought.
She glared at the tower, at the devious structure that had taken away a man’s life, at the place that hid the most devilish man she had ever met. None of them deserved to exist; the tower, the enemy, the weapons. None of them.
A cold gust of wind blew past Taylor’s cheek. The hum of her sword filled her mind, enveloping her thoughts, filling her with rage.
“HEAR MY CALL, WHITE KNIGHTS,” she bellowed, and lifted her sword high above her head. “TELL YOUR GODDAMN KING THE NIGHT WITCH SAID HELLO.”
She sank Valkyrie into the ground. A surge of raw power radiated from the weapon and exploded outwards. Terror struck the air, fissures plagued the ground, and the whole of nature screamed in horror. Thunder shook the sky, lightning blazed the wind, and flames of darkness engulfed the world.
The wrath of Night Witch had begun.
***
5-5
Q walked along the sandy desert floor.
Only it wasn’t that sandy anymore.
Everything had changed the moment Taylor sank Valkyrie into the ground. The entire landscape of the area in a hundred mile radius had transformed. Everything had changed. Everything.
He climbed up a low hill and took in the sights all around.
A tall range of mountains stretched out in front of him. The night-time full moon rose from between the lower peaks, and towards the starry sky. He glanced up at the misty cloud of pink and purple that appeared in the sky beyond the mountains. He watched as the colors mingled with the darkness of the night, he watched as the pink and purple painted themselves over the bright starry dots.
Q sighed to himself. He couldn’t believe that all of this had just been a desert just a few days ago. He couldn’t believe there had been a massive White Knight tower standing right where this hill was.
He walked on, his mind clouded with thoughts, and noticed Taylor exactly as he had seen her hours ago - sitting by herself on the edge of the hill.
He sat himself by her and looked at her face. She was calm, but her eyes said she was tormented, that she was in an eternal state of sorrow.
“Hey,” she said, her voice but a quiet whisper.
“You still can’t handle it huh?” he asked.
She quietly shook her head.
He lay back, resting his head against the hard ground. “You know you didn’t kill a single soul right?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I still don’t know how Levi always gets away with it,” he mumbled. “This is the second time he’s slipped away by mass teleporting all his forces. He even took all the Pandora Cannons with him!”
She kept silent.
“I mean, he’s just a Druid,” he said. “How in the world does he even find the energy to teleport that many people?!” he sat up, his face all serious. “Maybe he’s on some sorta steroids.”
Taylor afforded a small smile, “Maybe,” she said.
Q tried to keep the conversation going. “Commander Reagan’s memorial went well, didn't it?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Chris being Chris didn’t get too emotional during the whole thing though. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
“I hope she’s okay,” Taylor mumbled, her voice growing quieter.
“She is, she is!” Q assured her. “Andrea actually bestowed her with a medal after we told her about how Chris had taken a blade for her. We had a nice formal ceremony just a few hours ago.”
“Oh, that’s great.”
“Oh, and Andrea said to tell you she’s bored out of her mind. She says Lokai keeps making her play chess all the time and she’s not very thrilled with it. Something about how he always makes her play with white. I forget the rest.”
“That’s nice,” Taylor reclined back, laying her head on the ground and looking up at the stars. “My mother warned me you know,” she said.
“What?”
“She warned me, that Valkyrie would consume a wielder who wasn’t strong enough for it,” Taylor said. “And it came true. In my weakest moment I was consumed by anger and rage. I became a monster.”
“Taylor,” Q sat up, and looked at her. She had covered her eyes with her hands to hide her tears. Leaving her alone would have been the safer thing to do, but he couldn’t just sit and watch her cry. Plus he knew the perfect remedy to help her.
He focused on his life energy and infused it into his body. He lifted Taylor up, and swiftly jumped through the air, reaching the peak of one of the taller mountains with just a few jumps.
He laid her down on the rocky surface, “Open your eyes,” he said.
She sat up and uncovered her eyes. Her face immediately changed, from fear to wonder, from depression to pure awe.
Q smiled as Taylor looked around her, at the mystical blue glow that the mountains and the valleys, the hills and the deserts all gave out under th
e bright moonlight. She looked at the cloud of purple and pink that passed through her. She lifted her hand up, and waved it along, molding the mist between her fingers.
“Now you listen here,” Q knelt and brushed the tears from her eyes. “You single handedly saved the most powerful mercenary group in the Universe from their deadliest enemies. With one sword swing you turned a plain old desert into this beautiful sanctuary. With one act, you’ve given thousands of people a second chance at life. Don’t you dare think you did something immoral. You are not a monster. You are a savior.”
Taylor nodded and stood up, a proper smile finally appearing on her face. “Thanks, Q,” she said. She looked out at the sight below her, at everything she had created with just one stroke.
And while she stared at the landscape, Q stared at her, at her golden-blond hair flowing in the wind, at her elven-white skin glimmering in the moonlight, at her electric-blue eyes glistening at the sight before her. She grew more beautiful every time he saw her.
Taylor caught him staring at her, and her face immediately flushed red. “What?” she asked.
“I was just thinking of how ‘Night Witch’ is the perfect nickname for you,” he laughed.
“It is, isn’t it?” she smiled.
They sat in the silence for a bit before Q interjected with his usual random questions.
“Hey, how sharp is Valkyrie exactly?” he asked.
“Sharpest blade I’ve seen. Why?”
“Carlos locked my cookie cabinet with this unbreakable lock of his, and I’d really like to get it off. Preferably before I go crazy from my sugar cravings.”
Taylor nearly fell over laughing. “You know, for a really smart kid, sometimes you can say the silliest things,” she laughed.
Q smiled as he watched Taylor finally break out of her shell, as he watched her smile and laugh, as he watched her finally accept that everything was fine again.
And just like that, a journey that had been filled with a hurricane of emotions - sadness and rage, jubilation and loss - ended with the purest memory of all.
Laughter.
BEQUEST
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 76
