by J.P. Yager
At the Razerus XIII, deep beneath its state-of-the-art defenses, Dacian Velkas sat staring at his monitors. A Ruveran monitoring station in the Charkus-3 system went offline as it entered the maw of the black abyss. For the last twelve hours, he had been bombarded by thousands of similar reports—all of them having to do with the same anomaly appearing, destroying everything, and continuing on. It wasn’t clear if it remained in the area it destroyed and expanded from there, or if it was what it appeared to be: a wall of death. This latest report was a bit different; it was first time in a long time he had seen his old adversary in his Tiger-37.
“And…close one,” he told the screen. He rewound the video and saw the little ship make it out. He had no idea how close he had come to oblivion. Sutherland would never go down, would he? He was somehow tied with that loser band of Elysians. That was a new problem too, since they had cut rug and vanished with their new fleet.
His aged face crinkled in thought. He had to worry about what he could control. The anomaly had gone everywhere but the side of the universe his people inhabited. They were next. This brought his mind to the strange meeting with Abel and the deal he couldn’t refuse.
He called up his fleet commander. “What do you have, Yorhune?”
The gaunt-faced young man appeared on his screen and didn’t look happy. On the screen before him was a Breaker overlooking the destruction of another galaxy. “The aberration is unstoppable. We’ve been using rifts to try and slow it, but it keeps coming.”
“I put you in charge of this for a reason. Deal with it.” Velkas looked past his commander at their ship’s viewer and saw the arms of darkness coming for his Breaker.
Yorhune never answered again. The video feed was cut off.
In the quiet of his office, Velkas took a difficult swallow. His empire was crumbling before his eyes.
He strode through his office and took in his private collection, which ran along the walls. There were treasures from countless foes the Ruveran Empire had defeated throughout their centuries of unopposed dominance. His favorite would always be a simple chunk of rock. His men had presented it to him in a ceremony after the greatest battle Ruvera had ever won. It was the last piece that remained of the planet Earth. He mused that the Earthborns had been their greatest adversary since ancient times, when his ancestor Relken first took over the planet of Vale. Putting down that revolution over five hundred years ago set everything else in motion like a domino effect. Of course, they’d abandoned Vale in search of other conquests centuries ago. That was until he learned of the Void Star and returned to their ancient homestead.
And now their long reign was coming to an end. Life was coming to an end. Maybe he would have one last laugh with an old enemy. That brought his mind back to his present conflict.
“You almost have it.” Like a scream run through a grinder, the voice ripped at his mind.
He dropped to both knees.
“Do you remember my deal?” Abel asked. He was in his office, sitting behind his desk. Abel started tossing the chunk of Earth up into the air and catching it on the way down.
Velkas struggled to stay conscious through the pain. It felt like something was ripping his mind apart. Then it stopped.
“I am almost finished ending the universe, Dacian. It’s been pretty fun thus far. And a long time coming.” Abel threw the clump of rock up and smashed it into dust. It rained into nothingness. “So what’s your answer? When the Void Star reaches your hand, you will…?”
“Destroy it. Immediately!” Velkas cried.
“Good. Good answer. Bravo.” Abel appeared at his side and helped him to his feet. “You know what? There is something else.”
Velkas braced himself for another onslaught.
“Easy, bud,” Abel said calmly. “I’m only going to ask a personal favor, from one new ally to another.”
“Anything,” Velkas moaned.
“There is this legend of the device, and for some reason, I believe it’s true. My vision is blocked from something about to occur, and I don’t like that. I have a theory of who it is that’s been chosen to stop me, and I would like you to do something special for me to make sure they can’t.”
Velkas just nodded.
“That’s a good boy.” Abel chuckled. “So here’s the deal…”
-o-
For a long time, he sat quietly at his desk and stared into open space. He kept thinking about taking his ship and flying into a star. It would be fast and much better than what was coming. Would it even let him?
“Master Velkas,” the intercom buzzed. “Are you there, sir?”
He sat there numb. At last, he shook himself out of it. There had to be a way out of this. He was Dacian Velkas, master of the universe. He was letting his judgment get clouded.
“Yeah, I’m here.” As the wheels in his mind churned, he knew what he was going to do next. “Open a line to Render.”
It didn’t take long for his people to route a line to his assassin. The dark-armored figure appeared on the screen. “What can I do for you, sir?” came the robotic question.
“Render, ready to make things right?” Dacian fumbled to clear his messy, long white hair from his face.
“I will atone for losing the star,” Render replied darkly.
“That you shall.”
“My ship is closing in on their ship’s location. What will you have me do?”
“I have a new plan.”
Chapter 20
