by Jeff Gunzel
* * *
Everyone remained focused on the thin line of light as they backed away from it. The line began to expand vertically until it resembled some kind of huge glowing window hovering in the air. One second passed, five, ten. You could have heard a pin drop for miles. Then a swarm of black leathery creatures funneled through like a river of death, charging the second they hit the ground. But the crytons were no exception to that rule. They countered swiftly, like they had been preparing for weeks, returning the charge with all the skill and tenacity that had made them legends in times of old. Flashing steel easily annihilated the first wave of black demons.
Jacob and Jade were no slower in their response. They fearlessly charged in. Jacob’s staff twirled with deadly intentions as he tore into the second wave with reckless abandon. Already engaged with two at once, he sensed a third behind him and evasively rolled to the side. He raised his staff defensively as the three creatures converged on him at once. Two never got there; he easily parried a single tail strike while returning three hard shots of his own. He spun just in time to watch the other two lift off the ground, with their feet dangling like children. Their heads snapped back at the same time. Lifeless eyes stared blankly at their own backs, as well as at the two crytons who broke their necks like twigs.
Jade sent silver missiles in every direction with frightening accuracy. Although it was difficult to kill with a dagger strike, the well-placed shots did wonders to incapacitate the enemy. With her seemingly endless supply of daggers, many demons tried to fight on with no eyes. She charged through the flanks with a series of dazzling handsprings, unleashing silver missiles in each direction, but she couldn’t keep this pace forever. They continued to flood through the gate like a river of black tar.
Eric watched the carnage. The savage rage he now knew intimately coursed through every inch of him. People were dying because of him. His friends’ very lives were in jeopardy because of him. The crytons had lived here peacefully all these years, and were now forced to fight for their lives just because he was here.
Staring at the gate pumping these demons into the village, he could feel his own heart beating, sending blind rage coursing through him. Beating. Throbbing. He could feel the pulsing energy from that gate, just like his own heartbeat. It felt like a part of him. He was in tune with it.
He glanced at Shantis one last time as she fired off long black arrows two at a time into the chaos, almost always finding her targets. She turned and gave him a subtle nod. He drew his sword and charged into the fray like a caged animal who had been released. Maybe that was exactly what he was. His sword danced the patterns it had done thousands of times before, and both black flesh and air seemed to offer the same resistance—none.
His mind floated in nothingness as time seemed to slow. Everyone around him seemed to be running in water while he tore through the demons like training dummies. No, training dummies moved faster.
He knew he was close to the source, as he could feel its power as if it were his own. Reaching up to the sky, feeling its pulsing energy in the palm of his hand, he closed it into a fist, crushing it like a dry leaf. The gate shattered into a blinding show of white sparkles that rained down harmlessly like snowflakes. The leathery creatures that remained were no match for the enraged crytons and were wiped out quickly.
Eric fell to his knees as his legs betrayed him. Short, labored breaths tried to pull in air that never seemed to be enough. He got up on one knee as Jade ran over to him, but her face was not one of relief.
“Eric,” she said as she tried desperately to catch her breath, “I’ve been sent a message from Berkeni.”
Shantis and Jacob now approached them with black-stained weapons still in hand. They read their looks of concern which promised this was not over yet.
“Here, let me show you, all of you.” Jade twisted the ring on her finger one revolution, making sure all were touching one another as they stood in a circle. The vision came through clear as day, as if they were there themselves.
The savage humans were trying over and over again to breech the wall. The foot soldiers were growing weary, but the puppeteer-driven pods were still coming full speed. They didn’t have much time.
Shantis gazed at Eric with her yellow eyes full of gratitude and trust. “We will do what needs to be done to end this evil. I no longer doubt who you are.”
He nodded in mutual respect and began to prepare for their final push. He was exhausted, and would need to concentrate hard. Eric stepped back from their circle and began to breathe deeply in long, controlled bursts. He started to reach out with his mind. As his breathing slowed, his mind did the same. Searching...searching...it was like a blind person reading with their fingers. When you touched it you knew what it was, but if you opened your eyes, nothing seemed to be there at all.
He could feel the little entrances floating around him, subtle passages that could never be seen by any normal person, just experienced. Searching...searching...his mind wrapped around it. Lifting his arms in the air, he made a tearing motion with his hands. An opening in the air appeared out of nowhere. The glowing gate looked to be a rip in time itself.
“There they are,” he growled in a heavily strained voice as his arms remained out wide, trembling as if he were holding the rip open with his own hands.
The others knew they were looking into another world, as they could see the puppeteers floating in their own private dimension, hovering in the air with golden strings attached to their misty bodies. Hundreds of them spread out over a fluffy white floor that looked like the top of a cloud. The sky could not even be seen, as their world looked to be submerged in a constant gray haze, much like thick fog left over from a storm.
No history book will ever accurately document what happened that day. Fact will turn into tall tales and rumors, but a handful will always know the truth. Shantis, a cryton, was the first to leap through the gate to help the humans. The moment her feet landed solidly, a flood followed in behind her, fighting side by side with Jade and Jacob.
The crytons rushed in with weapons drawn, slashing wildly at the misty specters, giving everything they had to save the ones who had once condemned them. The puppeteers couldn’t be killed this way, but they could be disrupted, which was all that needed to happen.
“Strike at the golden lines,” Shantis screamed as she whirled from one to the other, severing their bonds.
The puppeteers were helpless against the assault, as the beings were not fast nor of a physical nature. Each strike turned them to a temporary mist, much like waving a hand through smoke.
Eric strained as hard as he could to keep the rift open. Several times he thought he would lose it. Just a little longer! His primal scream, derived from pure effort, echoed through the forest as he felt as though his body were ripping in half. “Hurry,” he pleaded as the crytons flooded back out through the failing gate which was fading in and out, as if pulsing with his waning energy.
As the last cryton leaped back through, Eric let the gate snap shut with no strength left to spare. With not a shred of energy left, he crumpled to the ground.
