Alliance

by Bruce S Larson

  The counterattack came almost instantly. A barrage of demon bullets from charging death-door spiders ricocheted across his axe and armor. Then, close by and keenly focused, Octuhr slid like a knife into his mind. Anguhr endured the cutting pain, and kept charging.

  “A test,” Octuhr voice echoed in Anguhr’s brain and across the web. “Can you think and fight. You must fight me in your mind. You must fight my demons. Is the physical battle pure instinct, and the other a conscious effort? If both are, the advantage is mine. I can control many things by mind alone.”

  “Like your false demons?” Anguhr replied as his axe sliced and crushed the arachnid attackers. “They have no minds. Not like my true demons.”

  “Making sentience from spider genes would be time consuming.” Octuhr scoffed. “Ask the Great Widow. Better to let the war fodder charge the enemy to eat them or die trying. And my recent efforts can kill your demons. Sheer weight of mindless numbers. I win.”

  “You were afraid to give them minds. You were afraid they would not follow you.” Anguhr’s tone almost sound like laughter as he crushed a burrow before the spiders could spring out of it. “My demons follow me, even away from the Dark Urge. Like her, you fear awareness. It takes power from tyrants.”

  “Tyrants, yes. Gods? No. I will be what permits thought, the mind of all creation.”

  “You will be a rotting corpse.” Anguhr said as his axe cleaved through a unit of instinctively fleeing spiders shooting aimlessly as they ran.

  Anguhr felt Octuhr’s response in his head as a psychic ugh!

  “Are you aware your thoughts carry such vivid visual cues?” Octuhr hissed. “It’s annoying.”

  “Then, Octuhr, see how I imagine your death.”

  The mantas formed a protective formation around the power rod. Mother Zaria had sent the order to find it. Thus, they did without question. Yet, questions formed in the minds of the sleek creatures as they sailed in open space. The far, Red Giant’s light reflected off the looming Old Jove and in turn off their steel skins. The rod and its sheath were not life, but had energies that mimicked thought. That was interesting.

  A sudden ripple of gravitons and transcendent energies emanated from a point close to Old Jove. A ship had come. Mother Zaria had foretold the arrival. The ship burned with crimson fire, like the one the first squadron recorded before they sacrificed themselves to aid it and save Asherah. Home.

  The mantas knew this ship also fought to save Asherah. The rod would aid them. They altered course to deliver it to the ship of red fires. It glowed similar to their red star at the center of what was known. Other space-faring creatures left the ship and came close. The collective records marked them as demons. The mantas had never known them as enemies of life. The mantas also had no concept of irony, or twists in history.

  A demon with golden thorns motioned with a weapon. The mantas opened their formation and let the rod drift to the demons. They moved quickly and took the rod. They turned to fly back to their ship with speed. But the gold-tinged demon made a point to motion his head and weapon, again. The act was interesting. And then they were gone. The mission complete.

  The mantas all watched the ship sail around Old Jove on a return path to within the solar system. No manta had traveled beyond the orbit of Old Jove. It was a vast world they were born to protect. Yet, the solar system was obviously a bigger place. There were certainly other worlds within the gravitation of the Red Giant. The squadron agreed; that was interesting.

  “Yes. Vivid.” Octuhr said as he received the image from Anguhr’s mind of a massive axe swung to cleave his body into several pieces. “Now feel something similar. So far I have based my aggression on demons, as a General would. Those demons were spiders, because arachnids were a ready reference. But as a mind learns, imagination grows. I was to be a giant, like you. But why stop there? So prepare to feel the physical sensation of being axed apart, yourself. Or, rather, ripped apart. At least until I take the weapon that was to be mine.”

  In the web, Octuhr’s largest, central eye stared down at Anguhr as the two eyes flanking it grew to half its size. The remaining five formed an uneven arc over them. All burned with a deeper, more intense red.

  The bulwark parted at the middle. Two, thick sections rose from the ground with the scream of bending, mephitic steel. A mass of huge, umber ticks rested behind the former ship beams. They stayed motionless during the upheaval. The bulwark sections ripped themselves out of the ground. Rock and dust cascaded from the interlocked and moving beams. The arcane metal began to flex as two jagged and colossal tentacles dwarfing the gigantic Anguhr.

  Anguhr swung his axe. It cut and deflected the first tentacle shooting down at him. But not the second.

  Bahl was uncertain if the Ignitaurs had weakened the web’s aegis when his mace struck opened a gash and then a portal. He wasted no time in consideration and immediately dove through it. He hit an oddly stretched patch of ground, and rolled. As he leapt back up, he saw the bulwark was farther away. Much farther. With his power to alter mass and thus gravity, Octuhr had elongated the circular plane of the web and its structure inside its aegis.

  Bahl did not miss a step, and kept running. At least the forgotten General was still using a great deal of energy. In the distance, he could see what looked like snakes made from metallic bones arcing at a gleaming and rapidly moving black dot. Anguhr had engaged Octuhr. Bahl ran faster.

  Wounded spiders missing guns and limbs from Anguhr's axe still ran as swiftly as the Khan. Close in, they leapt to attack. Surviving legs, calipers, and fangs stretched out to snap closed around their prey, Bahl. Instead, the thick mace struck them mid-leap, swung by the increasingly angry Khan.

  Overhead, the modified aegis created a domed sky of moving, indigo flames. Five streaks headed straight for it and caught Bahl’s attention. They struck the burning blue like missiles. The impacts destroyed two. Three punctured the cerulean shield. Only one survived entry. Bahl now recognized the falcons. Two plummeted to the ground, on fire. The survivor banked and descended to Bahl. It crashed as Bahl ran to it. Bahl knelt by the metallic, avian warrior as it raised its head to relate the purpose of their sacrifice.

  Pain. Anguhr’s back crushed a layer of rock at the end of the massive tentacle strike. He endured Octuhr’s mental attacks, and survived the blows of his jagged, snaking arms, even to his own surprise. But there was pain. There was also his fury and his axe. He swung it to cleave off a small section of the following blow. He rolled. The next tentacle shattered the remaining rock. Anguhr swung and cut again.

  “You move fast, bastard of a Khan.” Octuhr said with some admiration through his hate. “But I move as thought. My mind is my strength. It is faster than limbs wielding an axe. Stronger.”

  “Doubtful.” Anguhr replied. He leapt over a striking tentacle and landed on the other. As it rose, he knocked away an appreciable section of beams. But he could do that for millennia and the arms would still have enough mass to crush him.

  “Many have claimed greater strength, and the right to crush the weak.” Anguhr dove for the ground. He landed, rolled and swung his axe. “They always fail. Even the Dark Urge, once I realized her lies and stood against them.”

  “No leader ever had the power I do!” Octuhr countered. “Even greater power that will be mine. I can grant you a fraction of it. That will be more then you will ever feel. Accept it and I will not crush you. Not today.”

  “You cannot control what power you hold.” Anguhr said, and then bolted from a clash of tentacles. “Unleashing a force without restraint is not power. It is the act of fools.”

  “It is destruction. Yours.”

  “Not yet.” Anguhr swung and a massive chunk of tentacle sailed up toward the blue aegis.

  “True.” Octuhr said as his wrath subsumed in sudden, technical interest. “Even though my metal limbs are more powerful, and I have forced you into a defensive battle, I see your point. You react with trained reflexes. I never used a nervous system, much. I must
think to act. It is so much slower than thought. But I have a remedy. Naturally. Or, unnaturally. After all, we are fighting on Hell.”

  Tau and the workers had watched the battle. They had little reference to understand the swift motions and destruction of ground and their previous work. But they understood heat, and they all began to ignite. As flames erupted from their bodies, their abdomens collapsed into cauldrons of intense red and blue fire. Tau felt the urge to run. To attack. They all charged the black-clad being.

  Tau halted and watched his kind attempt to swarm Anguhr. Anguhr’s initial swing killed the first wave. He swung again and sent more slain fire ticks and their burning pieces into the air. But, as with the spiders, there were too many to kill before they bit and gripped the General’s legs. Their fires did not burn. Just as the aegis dome, they sapped energy from deep within Anguhr. His inner fire began to feed Octuhr.

  “You may have beaten my mother and brothers. But I am more powerful than them all, combined. It could be said that any power sufficiently advanced beyond Hell’s is indistinguishable from omnipotence.”

  The enormous tentacles paused as Octuhr’s laughter rocked the battlefield.

  “Such power is not enough. Not for you, failed god. You are still as a child reaching out, attempting to move your limbs but unable to walk. What you touch is much bigger than you can conceive, just as an infant looking out to the stars.”

  “A fitting thing to say, Anguhr—no, Azarak—as you were an infant. Unlike all of us true Generals.”

  “Yes. Perhaps that is what made me stronger than you all.”

  “You make me angry.” A Hell quake began with Octuhr’s words.

  “A tantrum. Fitting.” Anguhr said, tensing for the tectonic assault and more tentacle strikes.

  “I was going to offer you a throne over this galaxy. Such an empire has never been. Ask your pathetic, once hidden ally.”

  Anguhr could no longer hear Octuhr. The tentacles gathered the trailing fire ticks and threw them over the swinging, and now slowing, Anguhr. Fire ticks covered his body, even his axe and swinging arms. He looked as a moving bonfire as he staggered. Laughter from the web drowned the sound of a swinging, black axe.

  Anguhr strained. There were no demons to aid him. He hoped Octuhr would not notice there was a pattern to his axe swings. He began to enact a strategy to intercept and reflect energy much as he did with the Nabaton in a battle before his rebellion. Perhaps he could reverse the flow of power.

  Then, Anguhr felt more blows from behind, but they gave a sense of relief. He became stronger. Ticks fell back to the ground. Anguhr flexed and threw more off his covered body. He saw Bahl swing his mace. The blow knocked more ticks from Anguhr.

  Tau had waited. He had a rudimentary sense of self, as did the survivors. They fled in all directions. Bahl and Anguhr crushed those still attacking them both. They stood, singed and slashed, but triumphant. All Octuhr’s eyes glared with rage. Yet the tremor eased. The tentacles only moved from the residual shacking of the ground.

  Bahl took a breath and shouted. “I have word! Our allies have completed their missions. We can now kill him!”

  Anguhr released his body’s tension by hurling his axe straight at the center of the web. It struck. The silk shuddered violently as the axe blades stretched the center and cut through it. Octuhr’s horrific scream was lost within the shriek of the enchanted strands snapping and ripping free. His glaring eyes exploded as fireballs bursting through spheres of glass.

  The taught web tore from more and more beams as it plummeted. Anguhr’s axe continued beyond the web and struck the half-dome behind it. The tangle of curved steel exploded at the point of impact. The axe flew out, end over end trailing shards and lodged in the aegis of burning indigo. The upper arc of the reworked steel caved in and fell after the collapsing web. The ground shook again as the avalanche of metal, silk, and malignance hit the ground with the force of a dropped mountain.

  As the structure imploded, the Ignitaurs drew on their great physical strength and arcane power to wrest control of the blue aegis from the weakened Octuhr. Anguhr’s axe dropped. The aegis phased from indigo to familiar crimson. It flames began to gather at it apex. They swirled into a twisting helix that widened into a violent tornado and burned with fury as it shot into the sky. Bolts of mephitic lightning arced between the hellship and the tornado.

  Proxis and Gin watched with wary eyes. The energy of the huge tornado ebbed into a faint, high-altitude aurora.

  “The web’s aegis is gone. We will reposition to give surface support.” Proxis said.

  “A dry victory cheer, Proxis. But I am glad to hear it.”

  “I am certain of victory. Yet, the battle is not over.”

  The portal to Hell concealed beneath the wreckage of Sutuhr’s ship exploded open with the last of Octuhr’s arachnid hordes. Metal shards flew into the air. The spider demons climbed the shattered beams made wreckage for a second time by Anguhr. The numbers flew and ran to attack. A collective hiss of millions of twisted arachnids of all demonic kinds echoed as a cutting shriek. That sound was overcome by the unified battle cry of demon hordes and Bahl’s army as they charged and flew down for the final battle.

  Bahl and Anguhr stood at the mid-point of the massive forces. Bahl ran to the onrushing front of his army. Anguhr stood, and reached behind his back to draw his sword. For a moment, he admired all the warriors and his hordes. He even held Bahl in admiration and hoped the final moment of victory when last demon spider was killed belonged to him.

  Anguhr spoke, knowing his words would reach his lieutenants. “Uruk, Solok, keep the hordes in this battle. Fight alongside our allies and destroy the common enemy. My mission, now, is one for me alone.”

  Anguhr turned to the northern flank. His demons witnessed an event that seemed utterly bizarre. Anguhr walked away from the battle. His stride was slow, but with purpose. Zaria, the Great Widow, and all those in contact with ethereal realms knew to where Anguhr walked. Octuhr knew, also.

  The clash of armies echoed across the slope Anguhr climbed. He passed through four, fallen Khan warriors. They had stood at the head of the trail as a last guard if deception failed. Now exhaustion fell their bodies as their minds were suddenly free of the intruder that held them. Octuhr had no energy to control the warriors, or to conceal his true location any longer.

  The small mesa Anguhr climbed was unremarkable on any terrestrial world, except for the black temple at its summit. Its shape was similar to crudely sculpted palms and fingers of human hands reaching up through a field of shattered basalt. The scene radiated heat. Ebbing now, it was once intense.

  The finger-like columns recalled elements of Sargon’s memorial to Azuhr in their son’s mind. But this temple looked unfinished. The metal columns curved as if pulled by gravity before they cooled and solidified. Perhaps the structure held a formal shape before Octuhr projected such energy that it all became partially molten. Anguhr’s boots left impressions on the slab where Octuhr’s physical body rested.

  The gestation capsule carried far by the four Khan warriors lay still. Strands of silk fused into metal filaments wrapped over and penetrated the oval mass as roots or nerves. A covering of silk had been torn away in a rough circle to reveal the dark matrix inside the membrane. Octuhr’s real eyes looked out at Anguhr. He was surprised they did not look like eyes of a spider. Octuhr’s eyes looked much like his own.

  “We are connected. It made me easy to find.” Octuhr’s voice vibrated through the temple.

  “And in this form, you are easy to kill.” Anguhr replied.

  “No. This is part of my plan. This is how I ascend.” Octuhr said. There was a nervous laughter, easily confused with a whimpering cry.

  “Your deceptions now end. You were powerful, Octuhr. You are far stronger than your mother likely ever imagined. Perhaps the universe was spared a greater threat by her rejection.”

  “That almost sounds as a compliment, you bastard.”

  “It is a guess
about possible fate. Not like this. Though it is fitting the sword of my mother, Azuhr the First, is what destroys you. You, who were to be Arctuhr. You, who are the last.”

  “The last, yes, Azarak the unique. But hold the blade. You know I am powerful! I can be your power! Imagine if we—”

  The black blade cut though the oval mass in one, swift thrust. Anguhr’s strength pushed the blade through Octuhr and into the slab below him until the hilt touched the silk. Blood and black fluid pooled around the wide blade where it penetrated. The old webbing staunched a greater flow. There was no light in the eyes, only the last look of terror. Octuhr was dead.

  Anguhr pulled on the sword grip. It was locked in place. The slab’s semi-molten steel held fast and fused to the blade. Anguhr could not pull it free without destroying what rested above the slab and savaging the corpse. He stepped back. He imagined a time when Hell’s erosion had finally claimed all of Octuhr’s body. Along with his boot prints, only Azuhr’s half-buried sword would remain in the temple.

  “So be it” Anguhr said, and turned to leave.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  “Are you sure you wish to do this? One push, and it will take generations to move all that rock with the tools you have.”

  Shu’naff said in the Tectus communications center. He sat on a metal crate while Myra, Niko, and Laas stood around him. They all watched camera feeds on the main screen. The images came from the canyon dug by Buran to access the Builder vault within the artificial planet. Other technicians and officials filled the room behind the large, former enemy soldier who now helped his planet of forced adoption.