I . . . I killed him? she wondered, hovering in the air. I couldn’t have – what have I done?
“Melissa?” asked Toby, mentally, “Is that you?”
“Toby! What . . . what should I do? I’ve killed --.”
“You couldn’t have even hurt him, Lissa! He’s playing with you!”
The Freilux laughed, and sat up. “He’s right, my dear Lissa. Oh, I can tell you’ve been studying. But you still have no conception of what an Archsussa really is. Show her, my Strumbrion!”
From behind him came a tall thin figure draped in a long, silvery robe. Melissa cringed with fear, as she could feel the being’s power.
“This is my idelfada, Lissa; my Strumbrion!” shouted the Freilux proudly. “Across the ovoid, he has left a trail of fire and death as he crushed my enemies. He is irresistible, and I pray you surrender before you learn that fact firsthand.”
“Well, this is my idelfada,” said Melissa, gesturing to her descending platform, “and he may not have a pretentious name like yours, but he ignites a fire within me. Set Toby free, Asil!”
The small platform descended quickly, glowing like a sun. Plasma swirled around the structure, and from its surface erupted a thick column of sussa. It detonated just above the battlefield, causing a massive quake that knocked many down to the ground. The Strumbrion, unaffected, made several motions with its hands, and a large portal opened underneath Melissa.
What are you planning?
In an instant, the portal opened into the sun itself, and the intense heat from the surface of the sun could be felt. The concrete under her cracked and buckled -- incinerating from the intense heat. Melissa struggled against the extreme heat and radiation, erecting a thick shield to counter the effects so she could still function. The Strumbrion then opened a portal above her of gravitationally intense blackness, and Melissa now struggled against the heat and a whirlpool of gravity.
He has more experience than I – how can I possibly win? I thought I was so strong, but . . . wait, I have learned science!
Melissa concentrated, and bent the fabric of space-time around her, so the portals became interconnected, the whirlpool feeding off the sun’s energy. Now out of danger, she turned her power to the Strumbrion.
I can’t give up now . . . I just can’t!
She brought her hands back, and quickly brought them together in front of her. As she did, the atmosphere echoed her motions, and within the air rocks coalesced. The Strumbrion now struggled against a mighty gale-force wind that rained rock and stone. As Melissa intensified the assault he succumbed, collapsing to the ground.
She could see Asil firing more eruptions at those holding Toby and his Archsussa, and in a few moments, Toby broke free and ran through the wasteland.
Yes!
“Not so fast, dear friend,” said the Freilux. Melissa watched as a spectral web ensnared Toby, dragging him first down to the ground, then back to the Freilux’s side.
“Let him go!” screamed Melissa. “Face me!”
“Are you really ready for me?” wryly asked the Freilux. “Why don’t you finish playing with my toys? Oh wait, you’ve only met one of them . . .”
Out of the clouds descended two more Strumbrion, their cloaks billowing like silver fire. Sussa whirled like wildfire around their fists, and in an instant they landed next to their fallen comrade. They helped him up, and now they stood tall, radiating intense power.
Now, the true test begins.
They each hurled mighty bolts of power against her, which she deflected with relative ease. In turn, she remembered some scientific principles, and applied them against her enemies. She manifested a glowing sphere that rotated with terrible speed. It soon created its own gravity, and helplessly the three figures plunged towards it. As they drew near each other, Melissa hurled her own bolt of power to detonate the sphere. The Strumbrion were cast down many hundreds of meters from Imathrin, unable to move.
They won’t be so quick to attack me again, she thought. They realize I know what I’m doing. Their next attack will be --
Before she could finish her thought, hundreds of igra materialized around her, one on top of another. They were a squirming, roaring mass of teeth and flesh, and they all sought to rip her apart. Melissa felt a thick childhood fear grip her, and no matter how many she threw off with sussa, three more materialized in their place.
“Do you like my pets?” jovially asked the Freilux. “They have grown bored with their current feast, so I give them to you!”
They began to sink their teeth into her, and she felt real pain. Though she could heal herself quickly with sussa, it was a terrible drain on her strength to fend them off and keep healing herself. She was getting frantic, her mind racing on what she could do but coming up with no answers.
What was I thinking? He’s been studying sussa all his life -- how can I beat him? Through the mass of the igra, she could see her small platform firing blast after blast at the Strumbrion, trying to break them. Asil doesn’t give up . . . and neither should I.
Suddenly a solution came to her. She reached out thousands of tendrils of sussa, wrapping them around the beasts, cocooning them in her own energy. Their roars dulled and faded, as their bodies were transmuted by her will.
Now, let’s see!
The cocoons dissolved, revealing thousands upon thousands of small blue amoebic creatures. They rained through the air, almost like petals of some magnificent flower, falling on the Strumbrion. They didn’t know what to do, as they appeared harmless.
“Science and sussa, my friends,” roared Melissa, “it can be a terrible combination!”
Melissa opened the clouds and diverted a typhoon of snow. The amoebic petals absorbed the water and began to grow in size, pulsing and suckling on the Strumbrion. No matter how fast they brushed one off, another would grow in size and siphon off their energy.
She couldn’t help but laugh. “What terrible Archsussa you are! One must learn more than what is in the sacred texts!”
The Strumbrion screamed, opened a ribbon, and vanished within.
Melissa turned to the Freilux. “Your pets have abandoned you -- you should surrender!”
The Freilux nodded with approval. “You have certainly learned quickly and thoroughly, dear Lissa. Perhaps what you don’t know is one can open a ribbon onto the surface of time itself. Every minute you waste, preening before me, is a year in which they develop their skills. When next they appear,” he said, as the hooded figures re-entered the sky, “they will be exponentially more powerful and deadly.”
Melissa turned to look as they reappeared, and sure enough, their aspect was different. They seemed steeped in knowledge in power, as if they were elder Archsussa.
I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut.
Before she could blink, the Strumbrion hurled bolts of sussa at her, one after another. While she could deflect them or absorb their energy, she could feel her strength beginning to wane. She tried to fire back, tried to muster the strength to counter their assault, but she was overwhelmed.
I need to turn the tables, and quickly.
She raised her arms, and manipulated tendrils of sussa to divert the snowstorms around Imathrin into a massive funnel. Higher and higher she commanded it rise into the sky, until its terminus lay just above the Strumbrion.
Melissa twisted her hands, and the spinning vortex of snow turned from white to a cloudy grey, issuing great plumes of steam. She brought her arms down violently, and the whirlpool emptied itself on idelfada, inundating them with deca-liters of boiling water.
They screamed and roared with pain, falling back through the sky. Rather than wait, she pressed her advantage, hurling bolts of power. Two succumbed to the onslaught, but the other winked out of existence.
Damn! When he gets back, he’ll be even stronger than I. “How can they do this, Toby? Why did you never teach me this?”
“Because it’s wrong, Lissa. When you do as they have, and wink out of existence, the time spent
in the void will not only make you stronger but it will drive you insane. Think about how we suffer with lack of sleep? They spend all that time utterly alone. The more times one does that, the farther from their humanity they go.”
She turned to the Freilux. “Then I must break him now, before they return.”
Like lightning she advanced on the Freilux, and he threw up a spectral shield. She threw all her strength against it, hitting it over and over with fists enhanced with sussa, trying to force her way through. She got to within a few meters of the Freilux, only to find him standing relaxed and confident.
“Look behind you.”
She whirled around, to find the two Strumbrion had recovered and were speeding towards her. They flanked her, and she could feel some kind of tension linking them together.
Whatever this is, it won’t be easy.
Suddenly, Asil’s platform descended out of the sky, firing energy bolts at the Strumbrion.
Melissa cringed. “No, Asil -- no!”
One of the Strumbrion fired a sickly plume of violet smoke, and it enveloped the house, smothering the fire that swirled around it. The platform turned dark, devoid of sussa, and plunged out of the sky. Melissa tried to reach out to it, to cushion its fall, but the Strumbrion exerted a dampening field. It crashed hard on the ground, and Melissa screamed.
“Asil!”
As she blinked, the Strumbrion disappeared, only to reappear directly around her. They grabbed onto her, and she could feel their power. Their hands seemed to go down deep into her flesh, siphoning off her strength. Melissa tried to shake them off, sending off wave after wave of explosive energy, but they were indefatigable in their resolve.
“Soon it’ll be over, dear one,” said the Freilux. “Just relax, and accept your fate.”
The two Strumbrion twisted her back and forth, and she felt her body would be torn asunder. Somehow she managed the strength to entangle one of the Strumbrion in sussa and toss him down through the clouds to the ground. But the other grabbed her arm where the unhealed wound was.
“What have you done to yourself?” jeered the Freilux. “Let my personal physician take a look.”
The Strumbrion pressed its finger into the wound, and it grew inside and opened again, revealing her flesh. She screamed in pain, crying and wailing trying to shake the creature off but it was stronger and in control. She could feel her very soul fracturing, and though Toby screamed in her head to press on, she felt a final blackness begin to creep upon her sight.
“Lissa!”
She knew whose voice it was in an instant.
“Vincent! Help me!”
A thunderous explosion sent a shockwave through the battlefield, as the ship of the scientists materialized up above. Beside it flew Vincent, and he appeared as an immense black bird with wings of slate.
“Let her go!”
A bolt was fired from the ship, one unlike anything seen before. It flew with the speed of sussa, but it was a solid projectile, fired with the forces of magnetism. Melissa couldn’t see it fire, but heard the sound of the explosion, and saw a long, metal rod suddenly appear within the Strumbrion. It fell back, losing its grip on her, down through the clouds.
Melissa could hold on no longer. She fell down to Imathrin, writing in pain. Vincent swooped down and landed next to her, as the ship continued to fire on the Freilux’s forces.
“Are you alright?”
“No!” she cried. “It hurts, Vincent, it hurts! And I can’t heal myself. I can’t lose now; I won’t let my brother die! And my Asil is gone -- it can’t be for nothing.”
“It won’t be.” He held his hand over her wound, and it closed, leaving a long black and blue blemish. “This will hold for now. Rest -- you should recover your strength in a few minutes.”
Melissa clung to him with all her strength. “Thank you for coming.”
Vincent ran his hand along her cheek, and bent his head down to kiss her, long and hard. “I would never desert . . . my love.”
Melissa almost collapsed with joy to hear his words.
“Oh my, how lovely!” roared the Freilux. “The prodigal son has returned and bit the hand that created him. Well, how can I blame you? Lissa is a lovely little thing.”
“You are done, Freilux!” yelled Vincent with great fury as he got to his feet. He clenched his fists and steam issued from his form, as heat swirled like a vortex about him. Melissa had never seen an Archsussa so focused on violence and war. He must be something different, like I am something different. “Your minions are broken, and my allies surge! Surrender, and I will let you live.”
“Let me live?” scoffed the Freilux. “I think you need to get your eyes checked by your scientists.”
It was then Melissa and Vincent could feel it coming. The last Strumbrion was returning from the void.
But . . . it is so powerful!
“Get away Melissa,” shouted Toby, “run!”
“I can’t run Toby, I just can’t -- I’m finished running. I . . . I know what I am. I am idelfada.”
“But you don’t know who that is.”
The Strumbrion pulsed back into existence, its form radiating intense energy. All across the battlefield, both soldiers of Toby and the Freilux paused to witness its arrival, as all were blinded by its dark light. For a few moments the air was still, devoid of current and moisture, as it seemed the forces of nature stood breathless. And under its undulating, silvery cloak, a visage gleamed darkly, as if a jewel made of jade or ebony and through its facets peered out a deathly yellow light.
“Reveal yourself to her, my pet,” said the Freilux. “Show her whom she fights!”
The idelfada slowly pulled back his hood, and Melissa almost lost consciousness at the sight. Weakness corrupted her limbs as doubt lay siege against her reasoning.
“Father?”
“Your father was quite a competent warrior in his prime,” yelled the Freilux. “I figured; why not bring him back, as an idelfada?”
“Finally, I can fight Darian!” roared Vincent, spreading his wings wide. “Come dark creature; let us dance!”
“No Vincent!” cried Melissa, as he ascended into the sky. “He’s my father . . .”
But all she could do was watch as they fought each other. In fact, all anyone did was stop and watch as they fought, so brilliant were the skies lit by their exchange. The air grew hot as Vincent threw attack after attack against the Strumbrion, while over and over again he merely deflected and did not attack. After a while, Melissa divined what was happening.
“He’s wearing you down,” she shouted. “Watch out!”
And as Vincent paused to regroup, the Strumbrion struck with three massive blows the shockwave of which shook Imathrin itself. Vincent fell back through the sky, trailing blood.
“Vincent!” she cried, as she watched him fall through the sky. “Vincent!”
In an instant Vincent recovered, a long distance from the Strumbrion. Melissa saw him make a motion with his hands, and knew what would happen next.
“Don’t do it, Vincent -- please!”
“I must go into the void, and learn.”
“But you’ll lose your mind!” she cried desperately. “I can’t lose you, not now.”
“If I don’t, he will destroy me. Goodbye, Lissa.”
“No!” she yelled, as he disappeared through a ribbon. “Stop it,” she yelled at the Freilux, “stop it now!”
“Me, stop? When you and your little Toby started it? I can’t pull back my pets once their released. And look -- you even have a chance for a real family reunion.”
The Strumbrion descended rapidly towards her, its fists glowing with sussa. Melissa got to her feet, and tried to summon the strength to face him.
But he’s my father! He must have some of his memories within him -- he can’t just be a mindless slave.
As he drew closer, she saw the ship of the scientists arc towards him. It fired three massive bolts, but quicker than she could see, the Strumbrion broke them all in
his hands.
“Get out of there!” she yelled to the ship. “Run!”
The ship tried to come around again, but the Strumbrion was too quick. He brought his hands back and released a mighty surge of power that went straight through the ship. Down through the clouds it fell, leaving three massive explosions in its wake, trailing a fatal plume of smoke and plasma.
Who was on that ship? Sliona? Richard? I can’t have lost them -- not with Asil!
She lay back on the ground, her will broken. The Strumbrion descended quickly in front of her, and pummeled her with bolts of sussa. She survived only because of a shield the instinctively threw up. But with each blow, she began to lose the will to live.
“Don’t give up now, Lissa!” cried Toby in her mind. “Please -- try to fight.”
Maybe Daria was right. This life can be too much sometimes. “I can’t, Toby. I don’t even know what I’m fighting for. I need . . . I need to do what Vincent did; go into the void, and learn.”
“Don’t Lissa. You are on the right path. You hated what I became, and I can’t blame you. I went into the void, after I ran away from father. It changed me, made me colder. I would give anything to take that back, if only so I could be the brother you remembered me to be.”
“Oh Toby.”
Her father pressed harder, digging through her shield, beginning to impact her body.
“It hurts Toby, it hurts!”
“Lissa!”
It was then she remembered the network of sussa she accessed when imprisoned by the scientists.
I can draw on the battery of Imathrin itself! I just need some breathing room.
She pushed back against her father, forcing him momentarily take a breath to refocus his assault. In that moment, she connected to the battery of Imathrin. But in doing so, she could also sense the batteries of all the other levitating cities still existed, and were still charged. She accessed their power, but felt it would take time to recover it all. As she tried, her father resumed his assault.
Chapter 19
Emergence Page 14
