Before she could strike at him again, he grabbed her by the leg, and spun around so fast, Sarah only saw a white blur. When he released her, she crashed to the floor with such velocity that she bounced up and onto the opposite wall, traveling up toward the ceiling before she painfully and unceremoniously collapsed to the floor.
At this point, she ached everywhere but began feeling her rage build up. Should she give in to this anger?
“I think you should,” smirked Chase, “if you want to stay alive now or in the future. Letting your inner fury overtake you is part of the process.”
She struggled back to her feet and dusted herself off.
“Yet, you said you attained your higher level of powers not by using hatred or rage.”
“It matters most how you focus your emotion and what you use them for. I can’t deny that being angry makes me more powerful. What I do with that power is the key to staying sane, though. Now get ready, I’ve been holding back in my first two attacks, I won’t in the next one.”
That was him holding back? I’m in trouble.
Chase unleashed an animalistic roar as his aura tripled in size. His hair flew upward, his eyes shining like two burning stars. Everything around them trembled. In this moment, she barely recognized the man she loved; the level of power he displayed was terrifying.
“You either get into the game now, or you may die. I’ll try to revive you, but I won’t hold off on my next attacks.”
Is he fucking kidding me?
She wanted to complain and make him stop, but the desire to feel that she had a place in the upcoming battle as an equal to Chase, Argos, and Chris was too strong. She needed to know if she was a hindrance to them of if she could hold her own when the time came.
She didn’t have to be as powerful as them, but she couldn’t become a liability either. Otherwise, Chase was right to try and shield her, and she might as well stay on board the Victory when the time came to return to Erevos.
She looked straight at Chase and nodded in agreement.
Before her guard was back up, Chase was upon her and must have hit her a good fifteen times before she understood what was going on. He was moving so fast, she simply couldn’t follow him with her eyes. She’d have to sense or predict his movements, or she’d get reduced to a pulp quickly.
She felt the anger rise deep from within, but this time instead of fearing it, she fueled it with rage, and before she realized it, she was blocking, countering, and dodging every one of Chase’s attacks.
Her eyes turned bright yellow, and she felt an incredible amount of energy run through her veins like nothing she experienced before, not even on Droxia. What was most impressive this time is that she felt in control, and she was aware of what was happening to her.
She devised a strategy and started launching combo attacks of her own, even landing some powerful blows that sent blood from Chase flying in the air. He was reciprocating, and they both were hitting each other hard. He had easily broken at least three of her bones, but she had also heard some of his crack.
She pretended to stumble, and Chase went for the bluff. She grabbed his arm in the middle of his uppercut, twisted around, and smashed Chase on the floor with all her might. The force field around the time chamber flashed blue, and a large shockwave reverberated around him.
Her instincts took over, and before she had time to think, she was unleashing dozens upon dozens of fireballs. Chase tried canceling most of them out with his own but had to dodge a few. By the time he had deflected the last one, Sarah was on top of him, levitating in the air with a smirk on her face. She unleashed a powerful kick to his face and sent him crashing to the wall she had herself bounced against earlier.
Chase recovered his balance before hitting the ground and unleashed a gigantic column of energy toward her. Instinctively, she rooted herself to the ground, extended both her arms forward, and unleashed as much energy as she could, creating an equally powerful yellow column of energy.
As both attacks impacted with one another, a terrible shockwave sent both of them skidding backward. Chase growled and intensified the energy of his attack, which began repelling hers. Without even consciously realizing it, she intensified hers and pushed his attack back.
That’s when Chase stopped firing. The bright yellow column of energy kept advancing toward him, and he stood in the path of the attack. Before it hit him, Sarah felt compelled to deflect the column’s trajectory. She didn’t believe he could deal with its power and was too scared that his overconfidence would get him killed.
While he could revive her, the opposite wasn’t true. Chase teleported in front of her while she was finishing her move and clocked her with such force that she thought she’d lose consciousness on the spot. Her vision blurred, her head spun, and blood shot from her mouth. She was nearly knocked out and had to put a knee to the ground, but she refused to fall.
Then, everything around her changed. The white room turned into a beautiful Earth landscape with greenery and trees and a gentle breeze. In the distance was a beautiful cascade of water, the sound of waves gently lapping against some rocks. She looked at Chase who was smiling as he reached for something in his pocket.
Her head was still ringing as he opened a velvety case exposing a beautiful diamond and amethyst ring. His hair fell onto his back as his aura died down.
“Sarah, will you marry me? Today?” he asked.
The question hit her harder than any of the blows he had inflicted upon her. Her heart thumped, and tears flowed uncontrollably down her cheeks. She would never have imagined that he would do something like this, not at this moment, not when they seemed entangled in such a powerful and life-threatening training session.
“Oh, Chase! Yes! I will marry you.”
He smiled, took the ring out, and put it on her finger.
The reflection around them from the clear blue sky made the diamond and gem shine brightly.
She tried getting back on her feet, but her entire body ached. Chase bent down to one knee and grabbed her by the arms; soon her pain faded away. They kissed passionately in this perfect moment in time.
When their lips parted, he gestured with his head and said: “Look at that gravity setting.”
She looked behind him and noticed the gravity factor appeared over the mesmerizing view of the mountains and waterfall. It read eight hundred and twenty-seven. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
“And you were worried you weren’t progressing fast enough.”
“I— I can’t believe it.”
“Perhaps that’s the reason why you were failing in your approach to your powers. I knew all along that you were capable of this and more. Your power seems to manifest differently than ours. Perhaps it’s your lack of Olympian genes, but your Fury genes are very powerful. I felt that when you saved us on Droxia, you had a power even greater than our own. It just seems more complicated for you to consciously access it, but it’s certainly there.”
“Huh,” was all she could answer.
“Let’s get something to eat and prepare for the ceremony, too.”
“We’re really doing this today? I thought you wanted to wait until the war was over.”
“Initially, I wanted to, yes. But we didn’t have a time chamber. We can take a few days to do this, and only a fraction of time will pass outside the chamber.”
Sarah smiled.
“That sounds like fun, then. But for future reference, beating the shit out of your fiancée is not how these things go, and you’re the one supposed to get on one knee when asking someone to marry you.”
Chase chuckled. “What’s the fun in that? You must know by now that I don’t like to do things like other people.”
She punched him in the shoulder. “Good job, then, because that was a one-of-a-kind proposal.”
Tanak’Vor checked the latest reports from his admiral. The Furies had managed to wipe out a large portion of the smaller world’s forces. He had adjusted their strategies to conserve the fleets for
when it came time to bring the Earth Alliance to their knees. Something he could feel in his borrowed bones was coming soon.
By instructing his ships to jump in, fire from orbit, and jump out within less than an hour, they never gave the Earth Alliance time to react. They kept sending ships, but by the time they arrived, the Fury forces were long gone.
His forces had reduced six races nearly to dust. It would take years to recover from the attacks, and they would spread a message of fear to their neighbors, a message that Tanak’Vor hoped would fester through the galaxy like a plague.
His next target would be the jump gate networks the humans and Obsidians were building. In the long run, the jump gates would provide them a tactical advantage since they could travel through hyperspace faster by using them. It would also allow smaller ships, devoid of hyperspace engines, the ability to travel in FTL.
On the one hand, he was determined to send a message of fear and terror, but on the other hand that could result in other worlds joining the Earth Alliance out of desperation. With the help of the jump gate network, they could then assemble and send unprecedented fleets toward Erevos.
So for the time being, he would destroy only tactical gates. Those that would prevent the Alliance from jumping directly to Erevos, cutting down the travel time compared to using their own jump engines. This would only slow them down, but when the time came to strike at the heart of the Alliance, it could prove crucial.
He also needed to leave breadcrumbs behind with his attacks to try and taunt the Earth Alliance into making the first move. He needed Chase and the Ultra Furies to all come to him instead of him trying to find them, as they could have split up, and he wanted to deal with them once and for all and get his hands on one of the soul ships to study.
He would need a few more days to put all the pieces of his plan into place, and then he’d set his trap for the Earth Alliance. The next battle would either see the Furies win the war or see their downfall. Chase and his cohorts would have to choose between destroying the enemy fleets with their soul ships, which would tax their energy to be able to fight him, or they would have to keep their energy and needlessly squander it trying to bring him down.
There was no way the Ultra Furies would ever be able to defeat him. He had witnessed their capabilities, and they simply were not fighting on the same level. Tanak’Vor had no doubts that Chase would train and try to increase his powers, as he had in the past while that fool Arakan was in control, making one stupid mistake after another.
But at the end of the day, Tanak’Vor would siphon their souls and become more powerful with every warrior’s soul he acquired. He had already grown in power by assimilating Oryn’s soul. He could feel her inside of him; she granted him more energy as well as new abilities.
But unlike Arakan, he would not rush things. He didn’t need to. He just had to put everything in place and let the Earth Alliance make their final mistake of coming back to Erevos.
17
Kvasir had done an incredible job with the holographic environments for the time chamber wedding by choosing one that mimicked a larger venue rather than revealing how truly small the chamber was for such an event.
Of course, the list of invitees had been reduced to the bare minimum. Outside of the people already using the chamber for training, there were Chase’s close friends and family members.
Right now the holo-projector showed a beautiful replica of one of Earth’s cathedrals, and Altair was officiating the wedding.
Sarah was happier than she had been in months. The cathedral looked similar to the one she had seen in the fantasy she was escaping to when Argos was torturing her. Part of her wished he hadn’t been invited, and she could sense by his look that he felt like he didn’t belong there as well, but Chase wanted his brother at their wedding.
They arrived at the vows, and Sarah was amazed how similar Chase’s words were today to his words in her fantasy.
“I promise to always look after you and love you for as long as I shall live. I will always be there for you. With patience and kindness in my heart and to give you strength and support when you need it the most. You can always count on me, through thick and thin. I love you with all my heart and soul. I pledge myself to you for all eternity.”
Now it was her turn.
“You are my everything. My best friend, my teacher, my role model, and my true north. I love you now and vow to love you forever. In sickness and in health, through sorrow and success, through times of darkness and light, I shall forever be by your side. I love you more than anything in this world, and today you make me whole.”
Altair smiled and looked at the people seated just a few feet away.
“Chase Athanatos, will you take Sarah Kepler to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love her and cherish her, now and forever?”
“I do,” said Chase without hesitation.
“Sarah Kepler, will you take Chase Athanatos to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love him and cherish him, now and forever?”
“I do,” said Sarah, tears sparkling in her eyes.
“By the power vested in me by the Earth Alliance, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”
Chase kissed Sarah as everyone present cheered.
Minutes later Kvasir had changed the holo-environment into a ballroom overlooking a seaside cliff and a beautiful sunset. This was the perfect venue for a dinner with their closest friends and family members.
Dancing, dining, and laughing did everyone a world of good. It took away a lot of the tension people were feeling. Eventually, the ceremony came to a close, and all the invitees left the reception. Kvasir, Cedric, Yanis, and Tar’Lock stayed a little longer to help clean up the chamber while Chase and Sarah sat and watched the moon reflect upon the water in the horizon. Sarah rested her head on Chase’s shoulder.
“Thank you so much for this,” she said. “I didn’t want to pressure you into doing this, but I feel so much better now that our union is official. We don’t know what awaits us tomorrow, so I’m very happy we did this.”
“I’m happy we did this as well, and I’m sorry we couldn’t do it earlier.”
“Don’t apologize; this was a perfect wedding, and thanks to the time dilation, we don’t have to feel guilty for taking this break.”
Chase smiled as they enjoyed the dreamy view for a while longer, so long in fact, that they hadn’t noticed when the last of their friends left.
“What now?” asked Sarah.
Chase closed his eyes, accessed the computer in charge of the holographic environment, and changed everything around them. They were sitting in the cockpit of a ship, in hyperspace.
“What are you doing?”
“Now we enjoy a nice retreat and honeymoon as we should.”
“I know time here is almost free, but shouldn’t we be training?”
“Shhh, let’s just enjoy this for the next few days, okay?”
Sarah smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “That sounds perfect.”
Altair didn’t expect Sarah when he answered the incoming call from the Victory.
“Hey, Captain Kepler, or should I call you Captain Athanatos?”
She smiled. “While I like the sound of that, Sarah will do.”
“Very well, Sarah. I take it that you’ve returned from your honeymoon?”
“Yes, we have. I was feeling guilty about it, but when I realized barely two hours had passed outside the chamber, I allowed myself to think that this was time well spent. Chase and I needed to get some time alone.”
“I’m pleased to hear you had a good time. And, yes, thanks to the time dilation, you both got the breather that you needed. I would even recommend you plan some R&R time-slots in between your training sessions. With the way things have been going lately, I think it would help morale.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll let Chase and the others know.”
“I take it you didn’t call me to tell me any of this, though?”
“N
o, I wanted to go over the latest reports, but before we do that, I wanted to thank you once more for officiating.”
“It was both my pleasure and honor.”
“I wanted to catch up with you on what happened in the last couple of days. Any news of the Furies? Any more ships attacking smaller worlds like they tried to do on Thanos Five?”
“Yes, but they seem to have adjusted their tactics, most likely in response to their losing their fleet to the soul ships. They’re mostly performing guerrilla-style attacks now; arrive in a system, destroy their opposition, and get out. There’s no way we can hope to jump fast enough, even with the gate network progressing at a faster pace now that the gates are assembled on the Gorgar home world.”
“Well, it makes sense for them not to linger around for us to come and destroy their last ships. Chase is certain that they have more ships than we can estimate, and that Spectre Arakan being has more surprises up his sleeve. But, I think they don’t have an infinite supply of ships. If they did, they would have sent more than three super-destroyers on Thanos Five. As for the hit and runs, perhaps it’s for the best. Not for the races that are getting hit, of course, but we can’t expect to use the soul ships solely to defend every world from the Fury attacks, their impact on our energy levels makes them a last contingency type of solution.”
“Yes, Chase told me about the impact on the pilots. Right now we’re trying to put in place a system where we patrol more worlds thanks to the jump gate network, and hopefully, that will dissuade them from these new attacks. But, if I can be blunt?”
“Please, always.”
“I don’t like this. None of their new tactics makes much sense. In fact, it seems almost too random.”
“That could be because we don’t know their intentions. Perhaps a pattern will emerge, and then it may very well make a lot of sense. Until such time, let’s also not forget that the head of the Furies now is not even a Fury. So it would make sense for him to use different tactics. If only to throw us off.”
Into the Fire Part II: To End All Wars (Universe in Flames Book 10) Page 17
