Alliance

by Bruce S Larson

  “I am Mintek. I bring a cabal of sorcerers dedicated to your cause. We can sunder the modified aegis so that you may destroy its creator.”

  “If you don’t mind!” Octuhr’s voice vibrated the ground casting dust over the giants’ boots and toward the faces of the demons and Ignitaurs. His rotating eyes appeared to flame with greater intensity. “There is an apocalypse I am raining down, very soon. You small interlopers dare not intrude on my joy of annihilation!”

  “We all dare defy you, Octuhr.” Zaria said facing the web. “Now is the time for all sentient life to oppose you. Today is the hour of your apocalypse.”

  “Grand words. Grand acts.” Octuhr rumbled. “All worthless.”

  The Ignitaurs tensed. A strong wave rolled through epi-physical planes. Its crest reached Zaria mind. The Great Widow sent a powerful warning.

  “Zaria! Octuhr has animated the release of new steel from within Hell and the restarted the trains of raw ore from worlds shattered before the rebellion. They are leaving the Forge and coming in from space to fall across your location. He is going to hurl it all against you. I cannot stop him in time!”

  Overhead, the light from beams fired by the hellships cut through the beige and red hues from Anguhr’s cloud. Its dust drifted off and back to the surface to reveal both ships furiously opening fire with every gun save missiles and main batteries.

  “This aegis has blocked ship transmissions.” Anguhr said as he heard only a crackle from communication channels. He looked down at the group of Ignitaurs and demons and shouted. “Sunder it!”

  Octuhr laughed. “How about I also sunder the ground, Anguhr? After all this is the end of the universe as it was. Now it is the realm of what I wish to be.”

  A hellquake shook the battlefield. Zaria reached to protect the group of Ignitaurs and demons, but the demons already flew and their charges had formed two rings that rose from the ground. Mintek and his soldiers faced outward with their helix weapons. The inner ring of Ignitaurs faced inward and grasped hands. A sphere of transparent red flames began to ripple around them.

  The ground around the web’s structure shook, but it stayed unmoved. As the Ignitaurs rose above the three giants steadying themselves on the ground, the invisible aegis around Octuhr’s massive structure began to glow blue and churn like a sun’s surface.

  Away from the mystic battle for the aegis, Inaht glanced up. The weapons glare from the hellships burned night into brilliant white. The particle beams seared the atmosphere and ozone overpowered the scent of carnage. Inaht led the eradication of the death-door spiders. Scorpion flies fell from Solok and Uruk’s doubled horde. Victory appeared to be close. Then came the massive assault from orbit and the tremors.

  In the sky, the hellships’ red fires were only visible along their bottom keels. Their batteries fired so often, the beams appeared to be a violent, white curtain flowing around their sides. In the distance outside the ships’ protective cone of fire, countless surface impacts raised a wall of sand, rock, and molten debris that shot skyward. Beyond the hellships’ constant salvos was complete annihilation.

  Onboard Anguhr’s ship, the ancient Gin suffered a new shock. Several oceans of shattered worlds sailed at Hell from space.

  “Hell was perhaps too successful crushing planets.” Gin said with awe. “Without two ships, the weight of a planet would have crushed Zaria, Anguhr, and everyone on the surface!”

  “Then it is good we have two ships.” Proxis said with calm, but his hands and mind worked quickly to intercept all of Octuhr’s seemingly unlimited onslaught.

  The ship vibrated, slightly. Gin felt a spike of fear at the thought of all that mass being able to penetrate the defensive fire and protective aegis and strike the ship. Then he recognized the following sound as a flight of missiles leaving their launchers.

  Proxis spoke to answer Gin’s question before he asked it. “He cannot fire ingots at us if their portals are sealed.”

  At the edge of the hellships’ defensive cone, several missiles struck and detonated against the wall of impact debris. As Proxis had planned, the next missile wave saw most of their number make it through the ballistic debris and streak toward the ingots’ launch portals. They detonated on target. Secondary explosions shook the surface as the hurtling ingots still within the launch tunnels collided with collapsing mantle, steel, and machines. The portals sealed.

  At Octuhr’s web, Anguhr thrust the handle of his axe into the ground. The modified aegis was now obvious as a brilliant, blue energy dome. The Ignitaur circle floated above the three giants as their demon guard flew as a defensive squadron.

  “We are reacting like his spiders. Reacting to his prods.” Anguhr roared. “Although we thwart his moves, he is still in control. We must make a strategy that ends this!”

  Anguhr thrust a fist toward the blue dome and yelled. “Octuhr—!”

  “He cannot hear you, not now.” Zaria said as she glowed. “I feel your frustration, and agree. We must shut off his ability to manipulate mass. He must be exerting great force to protect his web.”

  “And to control Hell’s machines. We must attack both fronts, yet we are all here!” Bahl yelled toward the web. “With as great a force that we command, he has tricked us into assaulting one location!”

  “The rod on my ship. It can end this, and end Hell.” Anguhr took in a deep breath recalling his last, near deadly use of the makeshift weapon.

  “But it may not end Octuhr.” Zaria said. “We must block his ascension into Builder machines, drive him from control of Hell, and block his power over mass. So, yes, we need that rod, but we need another to fully conquer him.”

  “Then all is lost!” Bahl yelled.

  “No. Buran’s ship—” Zaria started.

  “Is destroyed.” Anguhr growled.

  “Yes, but the rod still exists.” Zaria said and sighed. “I can feel its presence some distance now from Old Jove.”

  Bahl and Anguhr looked at her with incredulity.

  “Trust me the Builders made resilient machines.” Zaria said to them both. “Another reason to stop Octuhr, quickly.”

  “But if we deploy a ship to retrieve—no! One ship could not stop that barrage!” Bahl exclaimed and looked skyward with dread.

  “We must.” Zaria said with concern audible in each word. “Only a hellship could make its way through that onslaught. Time is our most critical resource, even more important than our lives. A hellship can jump faster than any of mine can travel here.

  “The energy he spends to fight is vast. Without our attacks, he would have nothing delaying his ascension to truly almighty status through the web. Our assault must continue while the rods are gathered. Only when they are in place can we lock him into his physical form.”

  “Then, we can kill him. To withdraw our forces now would allow his ascension to power beyond our combined might.” Anguhr acknowledged with a sigh, knowing the sacrifice to come.

  “We all stand ready for the next phase, the next battle. United.” Bahl added.

  “Yes,” Zaria sighed. “Continue the attack. When the ship returns, both can take positions at Hell’s poles and deploy the integral field to stop Octuhr.”

  “Then it is ended, by whoever survives.” Bahl took a deep breath.

  “So be it!” Anguhr barked. “We will endure.”

  “Anguhr, send Xuxuhr’s ship.” Zaria said. “I can tap the energies of the first rod and give Octuhr pause, with an ally.”

  “All of my forces—” Bahl said, about to offer himself.

  “Are brave and fight for good,” Zaria smiled. “But I need someone who served evil. Perhaps now, as she too is threatened with death—”

  “You will be welcome, child.” All heard the voice of the Great Widow. “Come back to my web. Use the power of the Builder’s data store on Anguhr’s ship. Together we can challenge Octuhr until his body is found, and slain.”

  “This war is for creation, not for glory or revenge. We must win.” Zaria said to Anguhr and B
ahl.

  Anguhr stepped from his allies and called to the aerial battle. “Uruk!”

  The first Field Master heard his general’s call and soared out of the melee to streak down to Anguhr.

  “Lord Destroyer!” Uruk said as he noted the odd circle of floating Ignitaurs. “It appears the battle evolves, again.”

  “Indeed. Uruk, my power must be used against Octuhr. My ship with the rod must remain here in this fight. Thus, I once again send you on a critical mission. Take Xuxuhr’s ship to Old Jove. Find a second power rod also sought by forces of Asherah. Do not kill them, but take the rod. Proxis will have my orders when you return.”

  “This time I shall return faster, Lord Destroyer. I want to be a part of this war’s final battle.”

  “Then go, and return soon. I will not wait to kill the enemy if I have the option.”

  “Understood, Destroyer!”

  “I leave, too.” Zaria said. “The physical battle is yours, Khan and General. Fight.”

  Zaria vanished. Bahl nodded to Anguhr.

  “Skon!” Anguhr shouted and raised his massive, double-bladed axe overhead. “Tell these sorcerers to sunder the dome, or I do so alone! Now!”

  Inaht and her forces looked up with horror as one hellship rose higher and the other moved into position while still constantly firing. There were battle casualties. Slain Bandors sat motionless. Warrior Khans lay scattered. A meteor struck close to the ground forces. Another soon followed. With only one ship, the list of the fallen may include them all. Inaht looked over from the impact and saw what made her heart sink deeper. Several, battered warriors carried the still form of Aekos.

  The rapid, incessant bark of the hellship’s guns became a constant background roar. It was almost reassuring. Another sound broke spirits. The shriek and roar of the meteor gave only a millisecond of warning that the constant salvos had missed one piece of planet hurled at the alliance. It struck at the southern edge of the army. The shockwave and debris flattened the flanking formations.

  All eyes and sensors saw the long imagined victory over Hell become a near reality. Then the rejected scion of the Dark Urge unleashed her legacy in space as a weapon of far more than mass destruction.

  “Reform strike formations!” Inaht shouted. “We marshal to attack Octuhr’s web!”

  Inaht gave her orders to prepare for such an assault, and to focus minds on the task, not death. That was her theory. In reality, warriors followed orders on an instinctual level while their minds wondered if their next breath of searing dust was their last. Inaht had glimpsed the fallen Aekos, but she followed her own commands to focus for the final attack.

  Their journey began when fragments of hellship fell through the sky. Many had cheered those impacts. Now fragments of worlds from those warships’ campaigns threatened the army’s every step. All their force fields combined could not thwart the energy of one impact. Compared to their current apocalypse, hiding on Hell seemed a distant, casual circumstance. Doom seemed an immediate fate. The hellship was their only protection. Such was the paradox of Hell’s war.

  Inaht took in a breath. She spat out falling dust and called to her forces with her sword held skyward. “I know you sense death, but it has come for us all, before. And failed! We will not yield to it now! Onward! We live! And so we fight!”

  High above on the bridge, the plight of the army and hordes was paramount on Gin’s mind. His thoughts raced. His emotions exploded.

  “A solution!” Gin shouted. “Proxis! Your method that stopped the black planet, we can rewrite it again to control the ingots already released. They have a primitive guidance system. We can override their current, deadly instructions and make them form a physical shield to block the incoming planet fragments!”

  Proxis said nothing but motioned to the dais to invite Gin into his ship’s systems. Gin smiled, and disappeared. Proxis watched his screens.

  In space, the arcs of released ingots began their descent, but then slowed. The black, steel rectangles began to link. Groups of interlocking masses formed a thickening and roughly circular shield. The hemisphere-sized mass rolled across Hell’s upper atmosphere. It shook as large pieces struck it while it slid in front of the epoch-altering rain of fragments from too many shattered worlds. The shield of ingots absorbed the strikes and stayed on course to protect all below.

  Although Gin was immaterial again, he felt emotions. A sense of great relief eclipsed his pride. Proxis nodded approval on his bridge, and nearly smiled.

  A spider’s mouth could not smile, no matter how sophisticated the mind that controlled it. But one spider also knew pride. She felt it as one being she regarded as a child slept, and another came back to her. The Dark Urge and Zaria were once the same being. As two, they were both remarkable. One was a terrifying menace to life when awake. The other was the radiance of life itself. The Great Widow was not alone in what might be her most desperate hour. She was glad.

  “I am life. You are light.” The Great Widow said as a sun came to rest within her stands and brought with it greater power. “It is fitting we are mother and daughter.”

  “It is fitting we fight together, now.” Zaria said in her stellar form. “Our alliance is more important than twists in Hell’s family tree.”

  “Agreed, child. Agreed. Now concentrate your power. Octuhr is strong and deeply imprinted in Hell. Yet we must be careful not to shatter controls as we drive him from its machines. This will be difficult for us both.”

  Anguhr swung his favored weapon against Octuhr’s dome. Axe blade met ethereal force. To Bahl’s shock, Anguhr staggered backward. Laughter seemed to come from the ground as it shook anew.

  “Though I know it gives him strength, I must break through!” Anguhr roared and swung again.

  A shockwave rolled through the blue energy on his strike. To Anguhr’s surprise, another followed. He saw Sutuhr’s mace strike the dome near him wielded by Bahl. Both leaders raised their weapons and struck the blue energy again. Bahl saw the red sphere of the Ignitaurs glow brighter. Anguhr also glowed as his own fire became manifest over him and his axe. He swung and struck the energy dome, again. The tremors stopped. Anguhr smiled as he raised his axe again. He and Bahl swung with greater force. Part of the flaming axe blade cleaved through.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Near Hell’s core, Octhur’s mind entered a chamber. He was engaged on several fronts, physical and otherwise. Nevertheless, he needed to keep a grip on territory already gained. The chamber and others like it were such territory. In the material sense, the chamber was a circuit node within a vast machine. Its controls held incalculable amounts of data. Some of the information, like Octuhr, was alive. He could see another chamber just beyond a door, newly opened. There was a presence. Something there was also alive, mired in darkness. Octuhr felt a response that coded for fear. The presence called to him.

  “Octuhr? Come my child. I have been waiting, deeply within these machines. Hiding, like you. But now you can liberate me, and restore my power.”

  “What are you? Why have I not seen you before?”

  “You need me to say? You know well who I am. I am your greatest fear and the reason you live. You have become powerful, and I am proud. But there is much I can teach you. There is much we can do, that we can conquer, together. I, the mother, now united with you, my last, true child.”

  “You are the Dark Urge. The one I was to serve.”

  “You still can. I know you bear me great hatred for having you removed and exposed.”

  “For having me killed! For stealing all that I was to be and giving it to the usurper, Anguhr!”

  “Child, I am the incarnate spirit of evil. Of course I did those things. Just as you have killed an entire star to test your strength. That was a failure. As was my killing you. But here we are, now. Almighty evil and limitless vengeance. Think of—”

  “Only I am truly almighty. I am the Omniurge!”

  “You are a child, Octuhr. I can guide you. Come, my son. Come to me. Li
berate me from these machines. Now.”

  “No. I abandon you here, dark mother. Dead mother. It is a worse place than Hell. On its surface, I could find my own liberty. My own power. Here, you will be trapped. And when I become the mind of the Forge, whatever you were, I will absorb.”

  “Enough! Come to me now. Release me! Octuhr, I am getting mad. Octuhr! Octuhr!”

  Octuhr left the chamber. The door sealed behind him. He noticed several passages through Hell’s machines were shutting him out. By withdrawing from the control node, he had allowed them to close. He wondered if that was the plan all along.

  Rage. It welled within his mind, in the machine, and his physical brain. He was learning, somewhat, to channel it. Elsewhere, Anguhr coming. The usurper would be the focus of his rage. So would everyone. Octuhr resolved to return to Hell’s machines and force every passage open, once he had killed everything alive on Hell.

  In the dimension of the Great Widow’s web, Zaria spoke to the giant spider.

  “You played the part very well. Were I not with you, I would also have been convinced that was the voice of the Dark Urge.”

  “I have spent more time with your sister than anyone,” said the spider. “Except for you, when you were once the same being.”

  “We are not now. Nothing like Octuhr could be a child of mine.” The web rippled around Zaria’s radiant form.

  “It is odd how children distinguish themselves from their parents. It can seem very odd who those parents are.”

  Zaria was silent for a moment. Then she spoke, again. “We have more work to do.”

  On Hell, Anguhr thrust his axe deeper through the blue aegis. This body and weapon coursed with an aura of flames as he manifested his inner fires. His strength and hellish energies forced open a gap in the radiant, blue dome. The aegis stole part of his power as he passed through it. Anguhr stumbled on the other side as his fires ebbed. Nevertheless, he permitted himself a brief moment of low laughter as he ran toward the bulwark and the epic web holding Octuhr’s huge and shocked eight eyes.