“My father is not weak, and as Right Hand it is my prerogative to pursue the Crown whenever I see fit!” I finally responded as the entire room stared at us in silence. “The Covenant does not—”
“Do not speak to me of the Covenant, Darius! You and your father have completely corrupted it! Your blind loyalty coupled with his selfish ambition have twisted it into something that is only akin to tyranny,” The Supernal fumed as she cut her eyes over to The Righteous, who stood patiently beside me with the Fifth Blade still held before him.
“Your concerns are noted, Lemore; however, you should know that they are also useless. Your unfortunate perspective does not change the fact that my father is still your King and unless you wish to endure the wrath of the Goddess you have no choice in this matter,” I said, hoping that she would listen to reason.
“I do have a choice, Darius, and I too have chosen The Godhand. The Knights of Eden will no longer kneel to the tyranny of your father,” The Supernal sneered.
“If you think I’m going to stand by and let this happen you are dead wrong Lemore,” I warned.
“What choice do you have, Darius? Without us you and your father are stranded here. If you truly intend to defy us, I invite you to contemplate the inevitable consequences of your actions,” The Supernal said calmly.
“And I invite you to contemplate the ease with which I could destroy you,” I said darkly as my mother’s holy energy flickered within my eyes.
“I have no interest in empty threats, Darius. You will agree to The Godhand’s demands at once or else I will have these men detain you until such time as you have come to your senses,” The Supernal responded, prompting the Knights that stood before us to withdraw their high-powered concussion weapons.
“Has it truly been that long, Lemore? So long that you actually think a relative hand full of Knights are capable of detaining me?” I boasted.
“No, I have not forgotten you, love— and that is how I know that you will not use your power against them. This is a fact that you had hoped to hide from me but I can practically taste your fear, Darius. You are afraid that if you wield your holy essence as a means to destroy them you could inadvertently destroy me. Without the Goddess’ holy fire at your disposal, twenty Knights should be more than enough.”
“Don’t make me do this, Lemore,” I urged as the Knights readied their weapons and slowly moved towards us.
“You have left me no choice, Darius,” she replied.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Lemore, but I will do what I must to protect my father. Call them off now or you will all be destroyed,” I threatened, as The Supernal stepped away while the group of Knights formed a tight circle around The Righteous and me.
“Has it truly been that long Darius? So long that you’ve forgotten that I can hear your thoughts?” She asked.
“Lemore, wait—”
“Take them down,” she snapped, prompting the twenty Knights to lunge towards us.
I sent three of them flying across the room with a vicious spinning back hand that connected just before any of them could grab me. Most of the remaining Knights rushed towards me as I dove headfirst into the fray but one of them peeled off and went after The Righteous, who was still standing motionless with the gleaming Fifth Blade held before him. A flash of silver suddenly whipped through the air as my father unleashed his shimmering longsword and a fountain of blood spewed outward in all directions as the Knight that had moved to attack him suddenly found himself devoid of both arms. The Knight’s severed limbs flopped lifelessly to the ground beside him as he too fell to his knees before The Righteous. The life within his widened eyes instantly vanished as The Righteous plunged the blade of his sword through the Knight’s chest in one swift thrust.
My eyes glowed with fury while I struggled to keep my footing as the hoard of Knights that surrounded me desperately tried to tackle me to the ground. Another flash of holy silver suddenly lightened the load to my left as my father swooped in and ran three of them through with his enchanted sword. Despite his age, The Righteous was still one of the greatest swordsmen that our galaxy had ever known. His legendary skills were only surpassed by those of Ezekiel, The Elder, but when you factored in my father’s enchanted longsword, he was virtually impossible to defeat.
I unleased a controlled, yet powerful, blast of my mother’s holy energy which threw most of the remaining Knights into the air. The ones still left standing were instantly cut to ribbons as my father swooped in with his longsword and became a whirlwind of righteous fury, separating their heads from their bodies before most of them had even regained their balance. The wailing of alarms filled the room as the entrance of the bridge suddenly slid open and The Righteous and I stood back to back and prepared for the next wave of attackers as more and more Knights poured into the room.
“Leave The Greater to me,” The Supernal said firmly as she glided to the front of the pack and clenched her powerful hands into fists.
“Don’t do this, Le—” I started, but before I could finish my sentence she threw her hands forward, causing an invisible force to suddenly hurl my entire body across the room. The Supernal’s connection to the Spiritual Realm granted her vast telepathic and telekinetic abilities that were only rivaled by her twin sister The Infernal, and judging from the force with which she had just thrown me against the wall, I could tell that her powers had increase even more since we last met.
“The rest of you take care of The Righteous!” she ordered as she threw back the hood of her cloak and gracefully leapt after me. She glided through the air so smoothly as she leapt across the room that at one point she almost seemed to be flying.
With his holy sword held before him, The Righteous leapt head first into the group of approaching Knights. He was completely outnumbered by the constant stream of hulking assailants but my father relentlessly smote them all as they tried in vain to subdue him. Across the room, I was suddenly pinned to the wall against my will as The Supernal’s crushing telekinetic forces bore down on me. I wanted to order her to stop but the invisible forces that she was bombarding me with were so relentless that not only was I unable to speak but it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to breathe. My mother’s holy essence suddenly surged within my soul and as that invigorating power reverberated throughout my body I suddenly found the strength to push my hands forward while The Supernal slowly walked towards me.
My eyes burned with a fiery glare as I unleashed a small shockwave of blistering blue energy that instantly burned away the invisible forces that bound me. As I fell to the floor below the shockwave ripped through the air toward The Supernal, but she flipped high into the air to avoid the blast, then glided back towards me as soon as she hit the floor. I quickly leapt to my feet and thrust my flaming hands forward just as she raised hers. She tried once again to bombard me with her power but a bright flash of blue and white energy ripped through the air that separated us as my mother’s essence burned away another torrent of The Supernal’s telekinetic forces.
“You cannot defeat me, Lemore! Give in before you force my hand!” I growled as my eyes glowed brighter with holy fire.
“You think you know what I’m capable of? Believe me, you have no idea!” she snarled.
“Don’t make me destroy you, Lemore!” I pleaded as my eyes and hands burned with embers of white hot fury.
“As always, your arrogance blinds you, love. And now… so shall I!” she shouted as she thrust her hands toward me.
To my surprise, the world around me suddenly faded to black and I stumbled backward and fell to the floor as I realized that I was somehow completely blinded. My heartbeat tripled as I felt the tendrils of The Supernal’s telekinetic power wrapping around me like snakes. I fought hard against the overwhelming pressure of her invisible surge but without my sight I could not wield my mother’s power with the precision that I needed in order to avoid killing her— without my sight I was powerless to stop her.
“What did you do to me?” I choked
out as she slammed me against the wall once again.
“You are not permanently blinded, love. I am simply prohibiting your mind from receiving any information from your eyes,” she said, as another mountain of her unseen power flattened me against the wall.
“You’re… making… a mistake,” I said, as the invisible surges flowing from her outstretched hands threatened to completely crush me.
“No, Darius. The only mistake I’ve—” she started but to my surprise she stopped midsentence and I suddenly fell to the floor, no longer ensnared by the torrent of unseen power that she had trapped me in.
Nebulous images of jade and silver clashed before me as my vision slowly began to return, and by the time I pulled myself to my feet I could suddenly see well enough to notice that The Righteous was moments away from slaying The Supernal right in front of me. Scores of the dead and unconscious Knights that had fallen at the hands of my father littered the bloody room and The Righteous’ long grey hair and beard fluttered wildly in the air around him as he held his holy sword before him and inched his way through The Supernal’s powerful wave of telekinetic resistance.
“You think I need sight to defeat you, witch?!” The Righteous howled as the engraved runes on the blade of his long sword glowed white hot.
“No, Father!” I yelled as The Supernal was suddenly thrown to the floor after The Righteous redirected her invisible surge of power with a spinning sweep of his holy blade.
“Father!” I roared as my mother’s scorching essence engulfed my hands and spilled out of my eyes. I gritted my teeth and galloped towards him just as The Righteous swept the shimmering Fifth Blade towards my beloved.
For a second I thought she would perish, but the additional strength and speed granted by my mother’s holy energy allowed me to catch the Fifth Blade between my hands just before The Supernal could be struck down. The Righteous and I were then violently thrown backwards as the flaming essence around my hands violently reacted with the undeniable blessing that had been placed upon his sword.
The Supernal leapt to her feet before us, but before she could move a muscle, a look of dread suddenly washed across her face as a thundering set of footsteps rang out from down the hall.
“Hurry, Father! The Godhand comes!” I yelled as I leapt to my feet and clenched my fists.
Having been separated from his holy sword, The Righteous now struggled to pull himself back to his feet, but instead of helping him, my flaming eyes were glued to the entrance of the room as I anxiously anticipated the arrival of the man who dared to question my father’s rule.
“Calm yourself, Darius!” The Supernal commanded as the fire within my soul manifested itself around my hands and forearms.
“Flee this place, Lemore. I will not ask again,” I said darkly as The Godhand’s thundering footsteps drew closer.
“Never,” she said firmly, as the entrance to the room suddenly snapped open and a humongous shadow spilled into the room.
“Then you shall die like the rest of them,” I snarled as my anger got the best of me.
“Stay your hand Son of Eden or it shall be you who falls on this day,” a booming voice suddenly commanded from the entrance of the room.
My eyes glowed with fiery blue embers of power as the enormous Cyrus, The Godhand ducked his nine-foot-two-inch frame through the entrance and stepped into the room. His hair was black like mine though his was considerably longer, and his full-faced beard did well to hide most of the decade’s old scars that I had singed into his face when he initially challenged me for the Right Hand of the Crown. He was wearing a black and red service uniform rather than his reinforced armor, but even without his legendary combat gear the hulking giant of a man who now stood before me was no less intimidating.
“You shouldn’t have come here, Cyrus,” I warned as the fire around my fists burned brighter.
“And you shouldn’t have let me live!” he growled as he and I both struck out at each other.
The Supernal and The Righteous smartly dove for cover as The Godhand and I collided near the entrance of the room, sending a powerful shockwave ripping outward in all directions. Due to my mother’s gifts as well as my father’s intense training I was physically stronger than almost any Anokian to have ever lived; however, even my strength was nothing compared to that of Cyrus, The Godhand. Within a matter of seconds he hoisted me from my feet and slammed me hard to the floor below, but I blasted him into the air with a focused wave of my mother’s energy before he could crush me beneath his massive boot.
I leapt to my feet and unleased another torrent of holy fire after him, but despite his massive size, The Godhand was somehow as undeniably nimble as he was strong. Seemingly defying the laws of physics, he gracefully flipped his three-thousand-pound body over the wave of death that I had unleashed upon him and retaliated with a powerful overhanded right that I was barely able to stop. The metal floor beneath me buckled and threatened to cave in as I caught his boulder-sized right fist with both hands and struggled to keep it at bay. He crashed his gigantic left fist against my head and pummeled me to the floor before I had a chance to react, and as I tried to scramble away The Godhand wrapped his massive paws around my legs and flung me straight up into the air.
I saw stars as I slammed against the Anokian-Steel ceiling then fell back towards the floor but I was nearly knocked unconscious when he caught me in midair with a vicious uppercut that sent me crashing against the ceiling once again.
“Behold! The true place of Darius, The Traitor!” he boomed as I landed in a heap at his gigantic feet.
“Do not speak to me of betrayal, worm! It is not I who has forsaken the leader of his own people!” I growled as I wiped blood from my mouth and glared up at the towering Lord Commander.”
“No, Son of Eden, you would instead forsake your people by continuing to protect a King who is unfit to lead them!” he snarled as he kicked me hard in the stomach, causing me to skid across the floor and slam against a wall fifteen feet away.
Normally a blow of that magnitude would have been more than enough to incapacitate even me, but the surging tide of holy fire that was sweltering within my soul compelled me to pull myself to my feet despite the pain.
“You have seconds to live, Cyrus! Know that!” I barked as white hot jets of hallowed energy spilled from my eyes and ignited the air around me.
“No, Darius!” The Supernal and my father called out in unison as The Godhand and I lashed out at each other once again.
“Cyrus!” The Supernal howled as The Godhand easily hoisted me into the air upon impact and slammed me to the floor once again. “Release him, Cyrus! Cyrus!”
Crackling beams of light and energy spilled from my eyes and mouth as The Godhand wrapped his gigantic hands around my neck and pinned me to the floor against my will.
“Release him, Cyrus! He’ll kill us all if you don’t!” The Supernal roared as she dashed across the room to intervene. She had undoubtedly heard the thoughts that were swarming within my mind as I prepared to obliterate The Godhand and, due to the overwhelming rage that I had allowed to take control, I was seconds away from releasing a blast of energy that would likely consume the entire ship.
The Supernal stretched her powerful arms outward and slammed her hands together as she darted towards us. The Godhand drew back his right fist as she continued across the room, but as soon as he threw the punch The Supernal spread her mighty arms and a powerful surge of unseen power ripped The Godhand and I away from each other and flung us to opposite directions.
“Stay this madness!” she demanded as the tidal waves of unseen forces flowing from her outstretched hands pinned us both to the walls on opposite sides of the room.
“Release my son at once!” The Righteous suddenly commanded as he appeared beside The Supernal and thrust The Fifth Blade towards her head.
“No, Father!” I cried out as he stopped the blade mere inches from her neck. At first glance my father appeared to have the upper hand but unfortunately for
him that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
The Godhand suddenly fell to the floor as The Supernal released him and thrust her left hand at The Righteous instead. Blood spurted from his eyes and mouth as she clenched her hand into a tight fist before he could strike her with his sword.
“What have you done, Lemore?! What are you doing to him?!” I screamed as my father dropped his holy sword and fell to his knees in pain.
“I am killing him, love— slipping my psychokinetic tendrils into his pores in order to access his bloodstream. He will die of a massive stroke in less than a minute unless you surrender yourself into custody,” The Supernal said firmly as The Righteous writhed in pain at her feet.
“Release him! I will do what you have asked but you must release him at once!” I shouted as I tried in vain to break free of her telekinetic grip.
A deafening silence befell the room as I finally dropped to the floor once The Supernal dropped her hands to her side. A squadron of heavily armed Knights as well as several medics filed into the room as I rushed toward The Righteous, who was lying unconscious in a pool of blood at The Supernal’s feet.
“Leave him! The medics will see that he gets the care he needs,” The Supernal snapped, stopping me dead within my tracks.
“If he dies—” I started.
“If I wanted to kill him, he’d already be dead, Darius… and so would you,” The Supernal warned before turning her back to me.
“Take him away,” The Godhand ordered the remaining Knights as he gestured in my direction.
“No, leave him. I will see to it that he is confined in due time,” The Supernal ordered just before the approaching Knights could apprehend me.
“Very well. Take The Righteous to the medical chambers and post ten men outside this door,” The Godhand ordered the surrounding Knights.
“That will not be necessary, Cyrus,” The Supernal interjected.
Savior Part 3: Legion of The Godhand (The Savior Series) Page 9
