Ryonna didn’t wait for him to recover. Before the Brin realized what she was up to, she planted the magnetic grenade on his armor near his exposed head and activated it, and then kicked him off his feet. He lost balance and Ryonna mustered every bit of strength she still had and used her other foot to push the man away from her.
She fiddled with her wrist device which, fortunately, was on the arm with the broken hand. The grenade exploded, but not before the device’s personal shield turned on and deflected most of the shrapnel, flames and body parts the explosion sent her way.
The Brin’s head was gone, as was most of his upper torso. Ryonna turned back towards Keera and saw a faint smile cross Keera’s face before she collapsed.
When Hades made it back, Chase was resting, recharging his batteries. He had spent an incredible amount of energy lately but was surprised how much more energy reserves he seemed to have.
“Are you ready for your final test?”
Chase reflected on all that had happened since he reached the Underworld. He had learned so much it was overwhelming. He was as amazed at what he could do now as when he had received his first training sessions with Ares. In fact, for the first time he was confident that he had a solid grasp on his powers.
That must have been how Miseo felt when fighting him. Remaining aware of his own limitations yet not letting emotions run the show. It was empowering, and Chase was eager to get back into the fight with the Furies. This was surprising. He had hit rock bottom upon his arrival here, questioning his every move.
“I am,” said Chase, “but first I’d like to thank you for all that I’ve learned here.”
“You’re welcome, Chase. You were not in a good place when you came here, and it was clear that the only way you could regain confidence was to unlock your full potential.”
While Chase was proud to hear these words, he wondered if he had indeed reached his maximum potential. Seeing how much he had progressed he would be sad if it stopped here.
“Have I reached it? Does that mean I can’t progress further?”
“I apologize. I should have chosen my words more carefully. You have reached the full potential you are currently capable of. You have unlocked new abilities and multiplied your energy several times over. But fear not, I think the more you train, the more powerful you will become. You may have to push yourself to the limits to do so, though, as you now use your current skills with almost perfect efficiency, no longer wasting unnecessary energy.”
Chase nodded. “So is this when I fight you to get out of here?”
“When I first detected your presence, and when we first fought, I thought it would be. But that would hardly be a challenge, since you’re so much more powerful than I am now. This fight wouldn’t last long.”
“So what’s my last challenge?”
“You must defeat your own worst enemy. But before we do that, I would like you to show me all you’ve learned by fighting a known enemy.”
“I don’t understand. Who do you want me to fight?”
Hades raised his hands to the sky and a dark red aura engulfed him. Far in the distance behind him was the never-ending file of souls walking towards the pit, disappearing from view hundreds of miles away. A lightning bolt shot from Hades’ body and hit one of the souls in line. It removed itself from the line and walked towards them.
Soon the figure was close enough for Chase to recognize some of his features. The first thing that grabbed his attention was the armor the man wore. It was Fury battle armor.
Could it be?
Then color returned to the approaching figure and there was no mistaking him.
Chase smiled as he recognized General Arkoolis. “Good choice, Hades.”
“He is the most powerful being currently in my realm besides the both of us. I understand your fight with him was long and difficult.”
“It was. In fact, I shouldn’t have rushed to fight Miseo right after defeating such a powerful enemy. I had depleted a lot of my energy, and Chris had to intervene at one point.”
“Alright then, Chase, show me what you’ve learned.”
Chase took an offensive posture while waiting for the general to arrive. “With pleasure.”
When Arkoolis stopped in front of Chase, his eyes filled with rage.
“You! You’re the one who sent me down here. I’m gonna take my revenge on you now.”
“I have no doubt that you’ll try.”
Arkoolis brought up his red aura to the maximum and everything around them shook. His eyes were filled with pure hate, enhanced by the bright red that glowed from them. Arkoolis attacked Chase with a rapid series of fireballs, dozens upon dozens of them.
Chase was amazed how slow these attacks seemed to him now. He could have run three laps around Arkoolis and still have time to come back to block them. He simply teleported away with little effort, which only infuriated the general even more.
Arkoolis unleashed a second series of fireballs, bigger and faster, towards Chase.
Was I as stupid as he is now when I fought Miseo? Wasting so much energy for nothing. What a shame.
This time Chase sent the fireballs back to their source, deflecting them back towards Arkoolis. The general raised a protective shield but it only held for a short time. Soon it was breached and he was hit by four of his own attacks. A giant explosion illuminated the land for miles. When the dust and smoke settled, it revealed the general with a knee on the ground and bleeding from multiple wounds on his face, arms and neck.
Chase hadn’t used much energy yet, but Arkoolis had depleted more than a third of his own reserves. This fight would be over much faster than their previous one.
“Is that all you’ve got, General?”
The red lines in Arkoolis’ bloodshot eyes made him look like a mad man. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself and then attacked Chase with his bare hands. It didn’t go any better for him. Chase was able to avoid each of his opponent’s blows with ease, which infuriated Arkoolis even more.
Eventually, Chase grew bored and kicked the general with a swift and precise roundhouse kick to the torso. It broke through the general’s armor like porcelain and sent him flying backwards for hundreds of yards before he crashed to the hard, stony onyx ground.
Arkoolis recovered quickly and was already flying towards Chase as fast as he could. Fueled with rage, he seemed determined to kill Chase or die trying.
Chase had no doubt about which of these would happen. He didn’t wait for the general to arrive but teleported under Arkoolis and kneed him in the jaw, sending him flying upwards into the dark, starless sky. Chase then teleported above him and sent him flying horizontally with a powerful strike of the elbow. But it didn’t stop there. Chase used Arkoolis like a pinball. Before he could understand what was happening to him, he was hit and sent all over the place, never allowed to recover or fall back to the ground. The impact from Chase’s blows created small shockwaves in the sky.
Eventually Chase punched Arkoolis back to the ground and he landed beside the large crater the impact had made. Then Chase realized Arkoolis wasn’t breathing anymore. Going by the damage he had inflicted, he must have defeated the general long before his last aerial combo was over.
Hades came next to Chase and put a hand on his shoulder.
“You didn’t even have to transform into fury mode to defeat him. Did you notice that?”
Chase hadn’t. Indeed, he had acted instinctively, never feeling the need to push himself harder to win the fight.
“I can’t believe how easy it was this time. Was the general weaker?”
“No, he had the same level of power as the last time you faced him.”
“Uh . . . Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“How long have I been here? It feels like it’s been a very long time.”
“You’ve been here the time you needed to get a good grasp on your powers. Time here means nothing.”
“That explains it. Now about t
hat last challenge?”
“Right. Remember everything you’ve learned up until now, and that includes things beyond just your own powers.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“You will. I can only cast this ancient spell once, so here goes.” Hades waved his hand in front of him and a dark shadow appeared.
It looked like Chase, but he was all dark, with red, glowing eyes.
“The time has now come to defeat your strongest opponent . . . yourself.”
Cedric had been working at his home office since Spiros was busy with Gaia. He had been feeling a little left out since Gaia had decided to help them. Spiros tasked him with finding a way to wipe her in case of an emergency, which was easier said than done.
Cedric wrote a self-replicating, highly aggressive worm virus that should be able to wipe Gaia in case of an emergency. What he hadn’t managed to do yet was to find a way to stop his own creation once it had accomplished its initial goal. In his sandboxed environments, the virus always got the upper hand no matter how many levels of firewalls and intrusion detection systems he put around the rest of the virtual infrastructure he was using for testing. If he unleashed this virus on Earth, every piece of tech would bite the dust at the same time as Gaia or shortly after. Recovering from this assault would put the planet at great risk for weeks if not months, disturbing normal operations of all the utilities such as water, electricity, gas and pretty much everything else.
Lately he had hit a wall, so he was working on a side project.
They could now safely beam devices on board ships when their shields were down. But in order to use the planet’s large stockpile of nukes to destroy the next fleet of ships he needed to find a way to either beam them when shields were still up, or find an ingenious way to bring them down. That was what he was working on. The logs he had from the battles against Zarlack ships, which now included the Droxian logs they had graciously provided, allowed him to try to find the technological edge to achieve just that.
Still, he hadn’t had much success so far. His recent breakup hadn’t helped either. He missed Johanna. Truth be told, he also missed working with Yanis. He had wanted to pay his respects following the loss of his sister, but Cedric dreaded those types of situations. He thought it would be best to let some time pass, though he doubted it would make things easier.
Why do I do that?
Cedric could use Yanis’ help on his research. He doubted he could develop an effective weapon without his help and his much better grasp of Alliance technology. He rolled one for courage, but that always had the opposite effect. Once he was high, he didn’t want to move anymore.
So another few hours passed. When he was again sobered up and had run yet another utterly unsuccessful simulation, he resigned himself to go see Yanis.
He took a transport and, less than half an hour later, was on board the Hope. He had tried Yanis’ quarters but wasn’t surprised that nobody answered in the middle of the day. So he headed towards engineering. He found Yanis at his usual console.
“Hey, man,” said Cedric, not really sure what else to say.
“Hey, Cedric, long time no see. How are you doing?”
“I . . . I’m . . . Look, I’m really sorry to hear what happened to your sister.”
Yanis embraced Cedric warmly.
“Thanks, man.”
The last thing Cedric had expected was a hug, but his uneasiness faded away at once. He returned the hug and patted Yanis’ back.
“What can I do for you, my friend?”
“I’ve been working on something lately.”
“Oh yeah. How’s the virus progressing?”
“Not well, so I started working on something else.”
“I’m surprised Spiros let you focus on anything else.”
“Yeah, well, ever since he started working closely with Gaia, he lost his focus on the virus, which bodes well for me because I’ve just about had it with that assignment. So I tried working on a way to penetrate the Zarlack shields.”
“I see. You know, I’ve thought about it too in the past, but their adaptive technology is simply too complex. Without the root encryption key from their own computer, I don’t think we can bypass their shields. We use a similar technology and they haven’t been able to get inside ours either. It could be doable with an away team cracking the code from within the ship, but to get the away team inside the ship you need to lower the shields first, so it’s kind of the chicken and the egg thing, you know?”
“Tell me about it. I hit a similar wall and my simulations never went anywhere. But what if we could send, say, a Fury who is able to pass through their shields? Then we could infect them from the inside. Perhaps we could analyze Chase’s abilities to pierce holes in their shields and try to replicate it with technology?”
“That’s actually not half bad as ideas go. But Chase is in no position to make a demonstration at the moment, I’m afraid.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Plus, in the midst of fleet battles, he usually has other things to do than go on away missions. Anyway, now our weaponry is stronger than that of the Zarlacks. So while I understand your approach, I’m sorry to say that I don’t think it has a practical use.”
“Right now we have the technological advantage, but that won’t always be the case.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we haven’t seen any Fury ships yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Do we know how powerful these are?”
“We don’t have any workable data from the last war. It’s simply too far in the past. So it’s anyone’s guess. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re more advanced. After all, it took a large combined fleet of hundreds of races, led by the Olympians, to bring them to their knees. But what does that have to do with your current unsanctioned project?”
“Unsanctioned?”
“I’m sorry, I actually don’t care what you work on. Please continue.”
“Right. Okay, so let’s say the Fury ships are even more powerful. Having Zarlack ships we could sacrifice in the midst of battle to damage Fury ships could have some value. Don’t you think?”
Yanis thought it over.
“You may have a point. Show me what you’ve got.”
Argos growled. “If you two made me fight Menoitios for nothing, there will be hell to pay!”
“Let’s cool our heads,” proposed Ares. “Asclepios, what ingredients do you require for your elixir?”
“I can easily find most of them, but the elixir will only work with Kyrian snake venom.”
“Then we don’t have a problem,” said Argos.
All three Olympians looked at him.
“I’m not talking about the cheap, synthesized drug. That won’t work,” said Asclepios.
“I have a snake. It’s getting old, but I keep using it to make clones. In my experience, their venom is just as potent.”
“Why would you need Kyrian snake venom? That stuff is deadly!”
“Not to a Fury. Its venom is relaxing to me.”
“If that’s true there’s no way of knowing if the elixir would work on your brother.”
“Let’s not jump to rash conclusions,” said Ares.
Argos was becoming annoyed. “And we’re back to kicking all your asses for making me waste my time. I’ll just go to Chase myself and heal him on my own. I’ve revived dead people before, including his precious Sarah and her unborn child. I don’t see why he should be any different.”
“They weren’t dead for long when you did though?” asked Asclepios.
“Why does that matter?” inquired Apollo.
“Shush!” said Asclepios
Apollo turned to Ares. “Did he just shush me?”
Ares briefly smiled. “Guys, what’s going on? What are you talking about?”
“Well, there’s a difference between healing someone and bringing them back from the dead. Shortly after they die they are sent to Hades, and he doesn’t let them out of his grasp easily
. Sometimes, when the urge for survival in the subject is very strong, they can find a way to escape the Underworld. That’s what the venom is for. When ingested by or injected into the patient that needs reviving, it masks his presence in the Underworld. Then he can be brought back.”
Argos lashed out, losing patience. “Enough with all the theoretical bullshit! Do you need the damn venom or not? Yes or no?”
“Yes,” said Asclepios.
“Then let’s go. I left my cloned snake back at my base of operation. We need to get it now.”
Ares took Argos’ hand.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Shut up, Argos. We don’t have time to lose. I’ll teleport us there.”
“What about us?” inquired Apollo.
“You two board the ship and make your way towards Earth space. We’ll meet with you shortly.”
“I’m not traveling alone with Apollo!” objected Asclepios.
Argos lost it. He extended both hands towards Asclepios and Apollo, creating a fireball in each of them.
“Argos!” yelled Ares.
“You two are going to listen to me very carefully now. I have no problem wiping you both from existence, so you’ll do what we tell you. Is that clear?”
Apollo wanted to object to Argos’ threat but Ares shook his head. He got the message. “Very well.”
Asclepios took a little longer to comply but finally agreed. “Sure, but once you have your elixir, you have to promise to release me.”
“Now we’re talking,” said Argos as he canceled both fireballs. “Ares, whenever you feel like it?”
Ares touched Argos’ hand and they were teleported away from the planet.
14
Ryonna had to crawl to get to the levitating Droxian. Her heart ached when she saw that it was indeed Jonas. He looked in really bad shape. She mustered all her strength to rise to her feet next to the console on Jonas’ right. She inputted a few commands to the holo-interface and the devices holding Jonas released his limbs. He fell forward and it took all that was left of Ryonna’s strength to catch him before he crashed onto the floor. She searched for his pulse. It was weak and erratic.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 157
