Relics

by K. T. Tomb

  Alexey stopped short of the helicopters, but waved his men on ahead. They ran past the vehicles, ignoring them completely up until the Daughters of Eve poured out from the helicopters and immediately engaged the Iranians.

  “Damn it!” Alexey yelled. He knew then that the Daughters had purposely led his army away from the mountain. They must have known that he had abandoned the search and turned back. Somehow, they reached the helicopters before him. He retreated from them as the battle started.

  Even with primitive weapons, the Daughters seemed to hold their own. The surprise attack was to their benefit and Alexey witnessed one Daughter ram her spear completely through one of his men. She scooped up his automatic weapon and began to change the odds of the battle.

  He turned around quickly in a bid to run back to the cover of the forest and came face to face with Jess, Knight, and Shala. Alexey backed away from the trio, only to trip and fall to the ground.

  Knight laughed.

  “Wow! I hope you’re not the formidable Alexey Konstantin, because from what I see, you’re nothing but a coward, and something of a klutz.”

  Alexey stood up and tried to draw his gun. He shook with a mixture of anger and fear. “I am Alexey Konstantin and you are all dead!”

  Knight slapped him so hard he fell over again.

  “We don’t have time for this! Jess! Shala, see if you can help your sisters. I’ll take care of this creep.” He spoke with such conviction that Jessima IL Eve hesitated, rooted in her admiration of him.

  No one had ever made her forget her primary obligations before. No one had ever made her feel such conviction… he WAS the Chosen One.

  Jess nodded as she regained her focus on who she was and her purpose. She cringed at the thought of working with a probable traitor, but she would do what had to be done until the time she could prove the truth about Shala’s loyalty. Though Jess would make sure to keep a close eye on her sister.

  Shala didn’t like taking orders from a mortal. She saw what Jess and Knight had and it infuriated her with an envious anger, but if she acted too soon or too rashly, she would mess up her own chance to take possession of her prize. She had to bide her time. Shala would get her heart’s desire as well: her freedom from Eden. Shala forced a smile as they both left to join the fray.

  Knight grabbed Alexey’s arm and brought him to his feet.

  “So, are you the leader of this? Are you the one responsible for the war on Eden?”

  Before Alexey could say anything, a female voice was heard from just behind Knight.

  “No. He is incompetent. If you want a source for the war, then turn around.”

  Knight turned to see Sulina and three people he recognized from the attack on his house.

  “You don’t know when to give up, do you?” he smiled, directing his question at Morina.

  Their conversation was interrupted by an explosion that emanated from the mountain. A layer of rock and dirt exploded outward from under the ledges where the Trees of Life and Knowledge stood; they were undamaged. Sulina had a puzzled look; she had expected the entire mountainside to come crashing down in the explosion.

  “Damn bitch! We should have made sure she was dead! If you want something done…”

  Sulina touched one of the Fallen minions. A black energy rose from it and was absorbed by Sulina’s hands. As it was being drained, the minion’s body dried out. Its skin flaked off the more it was consumed. It tried to fight Sulina, but was helpless against her. The more its body was drained of energy, the faster it dried out. Before long, there was nothing left of it besides a large pile of ashes. Sulina moved methodically and positioned herself between Morina and another Fallen. She placed one hand on each of them and began the process again. This time, the black energy seemed to permeate her pores as it rose, swirled around and was absorbed into her fingertips.

  Morina reached out toward Knight, who was in shock at what was transpiring right in front of his eyes. Was it magic… or something else?

  As Morina reached out for Knight, he could see her pleading for his help. Knight couldn’t help the feeling of compassion for the woman, even though she had almost killed him and Jess. It was all he could do to imagine the pain that Morina felt as she too began to disintegrate right in front of him. Her arm was outstretched to him, as if by simply touching him, she would be healed. She fell to the ground and was about to touch his ankle when she separated into a pile of black ash. Evan was devastated by the spectacle.

  It was a strange sensation to feel for an enemy. Enemy.

  Morina didn’t die as his enemy. He turned his attention to the woman who was. Sulina.

  Sulina saw his anger aimed at her.

  “Good. Come then, Chosen One. Come fight me. I am the embodiment of all I have absorbed. Eden has a way of amplifying my abilities. I think it’s time to test them, don’t you?”

  ***

  Jess and Shala had joined their sisters in battle, but Jess found it difficult to focus on both the soldiers and Shala, so she decided to place her full attention on the greater threat. Her sisters had taken no losses, which inspired her to fight harder. The Iranians were surprisingly easy to defeat. Spurred by the will to survive, the sisters didn’t hold back. They killed the men to prevent Eden from being overrun, even though doing so was a distasteful exercise.

  Seeing all that was taking place, Alexey, like the coward he was, did everything in his power to try to make it to one of the helicopters unscathed. He watched the Daughters cut through his army with precision and ease. He couldn’t believe how quickly his war had unraveled. All of his planning and bribing had been for not. All of the money that was spent had been money wasted. He looked up at the Trees of Knowledge and Life. In such close proximity, they mocked him and his plan for gaining immortality. He scoffed as he thought of what might happen to him once the Daughters were finished with the Iranians. He fell to his knees, bowed his head, and prepared to accept his fate.

  ***

  Knight noticed something different about Sulina since she had consumed her friends. She smiled at him and then disappeared in a blur. He looked around, confused, still trying to maintain a defensive stance. He heard her laughter come to him from all directions.

  He tried to pinpoint her locations, turning wildly in circles as he searched for her. Be careful what you wish for.

  He felt a hard jab to his ribs. It caught him off guard and caused him to stumble a bit. Another blow to the ribs staggered him more, followed by one to the abdomen, which nearly took away his breath. All he could see was a blur of movement. Sulina had acquired Morina’s speed.

  Knight backed up just as Sulina served up an upper cut to his chin. The punch threw Knight to the ground. He had no defense against an attack he couldn’t see. Some Chosen One I have turned out to be.

  As he was preparing for blows to rain down on him while he was struggling to his feet, Sulina’s attack stopped suddenly. To his relief, her attention was no longer focused on Knight. She looked toward the skirmish, then down at him.

  “It appears that we will have to continue this little one-sided fight later. Bye-bye.”

  She disappeared as quickly as she had before; the blur left with her. Evan Knight collapsed to the ground and worked at pulling himself together as well as trying to figure out a way he might defeat her.

  ***

  Jess was excited that she and her sisters were making short work of their enemy. She had expected that the battle would have been bigger and their enemy much more formidable. She smiled as she looked up at the trees, knowing that they would remain safe. As she looked up, something caught her attention. It was a figure standing by the Tree of Life. She squinted her eyes in order to see better and then instantly recognized the form.

  Shala came up beside her and pointed at the tree.

  “Mother Daughter!” she yelled.

  The sight of Myora IL Eve surprised her more than anyone else. She would have sworn Mother Daughter was dead. That would be the last time she underest
imated anyone ever again.

  With the last of the Iranians dispatched, all of the Daughters ran toward the mountain, cheering victoriously. Shala stopped and looked behind her. She saw Sulina put her index finger up to her mouth and smile. Shala breathed a sigh of relief as she joined her sisters.

  Sulina knew that her victory would lie in the difference between the time that she completed her task and the time that the Daughters of Eve saw her. She went to each of the Iranians and touched them in the chest. She wasn’t sure if it would work, but it did. The dark energy flowed out of her and into each and every one of the soldiers. She knew they would be no match for the Daughters. Despite the fact that they were heavily trained military men, Sulina knew that they had no chance, but she needed them to be in Eden. Everything that she had predicted had come to pass. She only had to seal the deal in order to finish her conquest.

  After she transformed the last one into a Fallen, she had them line up single file. She kept looking back at the spectacle of the Daughters cheering at the base of the Mountain of God. Sulina’s eyesight was extremely sharp. Even from where she stood, she could tell that Myora was bleeding from the beating she had taken.

  Alexey heard the commotion near him beginning to die out and risked a glance around him. He saw Sulina’s line of newly recruited Fallen, with the queen herself at the front.

  She saw Alexey and walked confidently over to him. “So Alexey, I assume that you are aware of my plan now.”

  Alexey looked confused and then had a spark of realization. “You! You were planning to sacrifice my army all this time! Вы суме коровы! I can’t believe you would betray the man who got you into Eden!”

  Sulina laughed. “Poor, poor Alexey. Did I burst your little bubble? Ultimate power is mine and I would never allow a simple mortal to get in my way. If I were you, I would run and cower in one of those helicopters with the hope that someone might feel sorry enough for you to carry your whimpering hide back to civilization. You could die here too. Either way is fine with me. Goodbye, Alexey.”

  He ran toward the helicopters, unseen by the Daughters, as Sulina started to absorb the life force of her newly formed minions.

  ***

  Myora had difficulty standing, let alone speaking, but she knew she had to address her Daughters.

  “Daughters!” Her voice crackled as she used up much of her strength to lend volume to it.

  For the first time since they had seen their Mother appear, they realized that something was wrong.

  “Daughters!” Myora repeated, to make sure that they heard her. “As you know, there is a traitor in Eden! But at the present time, that is not our greatest concern! Sulina the Fallen, has infiltrated our paradise as well!”

  “The traitor is Jessima IL Eve!” yelled Shala, to the surprise of everyone. All eyes swept from the accuser to the accused as she spoke. “She exchanged perversions with the Chosen One, mere minutes ago!”

  Myora tried to stand straight. “Love is never a determination of betrayal, Shala! As I stated, the traitor is unimportant, only because she has already done all of the damage she can do! We have a much bigger problem that must be addressed!” She fell to her knees in pain.

  “Mother!” yelled Jess. “Why do you not partake of the Healing Oil? The Tree of Life is right there!”

  Myora smiled weakly at Jess. “If I do that, then I will not be able to do what I must do in order to save Eden! You will understand soon!”

  ***

  Evan Knight pulled himself up when he heard the shouting. He was feeling quite emasculated by what had taken place so far. He groaned as he felt his chest. Three cracked ribs—if not more—screamed in protest. He saw all of the Daughters at the base of the mountain and then saw large piles of ash all over the ground. In an instant he knew that the three Fallen, who were absorbed by Sulina, hadn’t made those extra piles. He swallowed hard as he looked toward the likely the source of the ashes.

  Sulina was standing several yards ahead of him; at least he thought it was Sulina. Her eyes were yellow and had a crystalline glow to them. She had a misty black aura, which constantly circled around her. She was also a few feet taller than he last remembered her being. Her hair was jet black, even darker than it had been before. It appeared as if it had a life of its own and flowed in correspondence with the black aura. When she smiled, she showed off a set of oversized, chiseled teeth. They resembled the teeth of a shark. Her clothes appeared as if they were made out of the black mist. Her body was completely covered up to her neck. Her arms and legs were ripped with muscles. Her skin had a red hue to it, but what surprised Knight the most, was that… she had grown a tail. The tail was long and appeared to be prehensile. It was about twenty feet long and swished back and forth in response to her mood. It was thin and red and had a spear point at the end.

  This can’t be good.

  Throughout Knight’s time in Eden, he had felt apprehension, low self-esteem, love for Jess, confusion, and a sense of awe. After seeing Sulina, he could add intense and complete fear to the list.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Alexey thought he was safe inside one of the helicopters.

  He looked toward the mountain and saw the Daughters turn toward him. Well, that was that. So much for plans of conquest. Now that he had attracted their attention, he would try to find a compartment to hide in. Hide like a rat. Such would mark the end of Alexey Konstantin’s glorious life. There would be no hero’s welcome for his return. There would be no immortality.

  It would be easy to blame Sulina for his failure. She seemed to know how ineffective the Iranian army would be against the Daughters of Eve. She seemed to have had everything planned out perfectly… for herself. Alexey had never been outsmarted by anyone in his life, much less a woman.

  He fought to open the rear storage compartment. He struggled and wondered why it would be stuck. He pulled for all he was worth, which at the time wasn’t much. The storage door flew open, causing Alexey to tumble backward. He looked up in shock to see an Iranian pilot shaking with fear inside the compartment.

  Alexey smiled.

  “Do you want to live, my friend?”

  The pilot nodded his head vehemently.

  “It is just you and me,” Alexey continued. “We will not win our escape by confronting these Amazons. I must ask you to get into the pilot’s seat and prepare for departure.”

  The pilot rushed to the seat and put on his helmet. Alexey sat in the adjoining seat and buckled himself in. He was ready for an all-out attack on the helicopter.

  Alexey saw a female figure walk out to the front of the chopper, but the woman showed no interest in his escape. She was focused on the Daughters, who were headed straight for her. It wasn’t just any woman; he realized a split second later it was… Sulina? If it was Sulina, there were a few things that were different about her. Is that a tail?

  Alexey and the pilot didn’t move. They wanted to see how it was going to play out first. “Hold on, my friend,” Alexey said with renewed confidence. “New plan.”

  ***

  Sulina stood defiantly in front of the helicopters as the Daughters advanced, in spite of the warnings from Mother Daughter. Myora knew that there was something different… something powerful about Sulina. She stumbled over to lean against the tree. Soon.

  Sulina started to run toward the Daughters, despite the fact that they severely outnumbered her. As she advanced, she grinned and showed off her new teeth. Calaya IL Eve was the first to see the transformed Sulina. She stopped.

  “Sisters! There is something—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, Sulina became a red blur and bit deep into Calaya’s neck, almost severing her head with one bite. Calaya’s blood sprayed everywhere as she fell lifeless to the ground. The remaining sisters stopped to assess the situation and examine Calaya’s body.

  ***

  Evan Knight arrived at the helicopters just in time to witness the bloodshed beyond. The chopper’s blades had started to wind up, a
s Knight went to the front of them to see who was inside. Alexey.

  Alexey smiled as the helicopter rose into the air. Knight had a split second to decide what he was going to do. If he was able to, Alexey would disappear from Eden and from sight and it would be impossible to find him again. Knight had to stop him. He was not well equipped to deal with whatever Sulina had become, but for the mortal task of stopping Alexey Konstantin, he was more than well equipped. Knight grabbed the landing skid and held on tight.

  ***

  Sulina let out a bloodcurdling howl as she raised her hands in triumph. Jess glanced up at the helicopter, seeing Knight hanging onto the bottom of it as it passed over. She wasn’t sure what he was up to, but at that very instant, she really couldn’t worry about him. She had more important things to attend to.

  “For our sisters!” Jess yelled with her fist raised.

  All of the Daughters joined in the cheer.

  Jess was the first to rush Sulina. She blurred out of the way and elbowed Jess in the back, which knocked her to the ground. The Daughters attacked as one. Each one jumped into the fray, delivered a blow to Sulina and got out of the way, to give another sister her chance. Sulina’s tail grabbed Tallia IL Eve by the throat while the evil one rushed two other sisters. When Jess tried to renew her attack on Sulina from behind, the tail acted independently and threw Tallia into Jess.

  Sulina was hard to hit, because of Morina’s borrowed speed. That didn’t stop the Daughters from trying. Sulina grabbed Shala by the tunic and lifted her into the air.

  “What the hell are you?” asked Shala.

  “Is that any way to talk your aunt?” replied Sulina. Her voice was coarse and sounded like four or five different people were talking all at once. “By the way,” Sulina continued, “I don’t need you anymore.”