Revelations (Song of Sophangence Book 4)

by E. I. McAllistair

  True to his suspicion, he was being avoided at all costs. Even without his Life attuned abilities, he had come across one person who saw him, and immediately turned on his heel, throwing all caution to the wind and sprinted away. The entire time he was praying to some unknown deity that he was not seen. Anaar found it odd, considering he knew just how scary he could be, but others had no idea. How could it be he had such a reputation when no one understood even a fraction of what he could do?

  He made no effort to chase the man, if nothing else, admiring his survival instinct. Though he could not place high in the rankings by simply preventing his elimination, it was smart to run from fights that were impossible to win. Continuing to trudge through the forest since he had no particular destination, he became annoyed with the one presence that did not seem to be fleeing from him.

  It had been close to a mile he had walked since realizing he was being followed. Unsure of what they could be waiting on, Anaar decided to see how it would play out. It was unclear if his assailant was waiting on him to tire out, or more likely engage with someone else, seizing the opportunity of distraction. They instead traveled at just enough distance to keep him in their sights, but not be detected. That was at least what they presumed. Finally fed up with the farce, Anaar sent a dagger flying behind him, directly into the person’s head.

  “Are you finally planning to say hi JaMarkus?!”

  Vicious torrents emerged from all around him, hungry to rip his body to shreds. With the most minimal of efforts, Anaar evaporates the streams instantaneously as they appear, not even leaving steam behind as evidence they existed. He turns lazily around, piercing the foliage with his eyes, staring directly at the obscured JaMarkus.

  “Oh look! You learned a new trick! You finally managed to summon forth water remotely! See what sober living can do for you!?”

  Realizing he had already been found out, JaMarkus could take hiding in the shadows no longer. His seething anger bubbled forth as he sprinted from the brush, slinging wild blasts of water with all his might. Roaring with fury, he poured all he had into the assault as he advanced.

  With each blast that closed in to make contact, Anaar batted them away as if they were harmless flies. Though he was rapidly evaporating them, the way it appeared was that with a wave of his hand, the water disappeared as he touched them. Only just beginning, JaMarkus had finally made his way face to face with Anaar.

  “Fuck. You. I will never stop hunting you for as long as I live. You have taken everything from me! My life was perfect before you came into it! I’ll make you pay for the damage you have caused, with what little shit you do have! You, your friends, your family, no one will be safe from me!”

  Anaar sighs in exasperation, rolling his eyes in the most dramatic manner. “Are you still talking about that?! When will you get over yourself and admit to your own tragic predisposition for failure? It seems you have conveniently forgotten you started this whole mess. It isn’t my fault you don’t have the bite to back up your bark…”

  “You think you are some hot shit! Every time, someone has to come to your rescue. Who is going to save you now though? Everyone hates you! If they see us, they will just join in to kill you! You might have bested me once with that cheap shot of blowing off my limbs, but you are nothing without those explosions! You could never beat me in a fair fight!”

  Anaar’s face falls flat, then becomes confused. “Let me get this straight. Your contention is that I can’t beat you unless I use my powers, but you have free reign to use yours? Basically, you are admitting that your idea of fair is actually with a handicap?”

  JaMarkus’ face turns into a nasty snarl as a low growl escapes his throat. “Always so smug. Let’s see how smug you are after-”

  His statement was immediately cut short as in an explosive burst of speed, Anaar dashes forth, grabbing his face, then barreling though a series of thick trees, each of them being obliterated by the force. The clamor that was emanating throughout the forest could be heard my many combatants all around, most of them being so shocked by whatever could be making such a racket, they paused their own fights to look around in curiosity. As the noise continued, JaMarkus endured an endless string of brutal assaults.

  “sHOw NO mErCY! ThE sTRoNG MuST make tHE weak OBEY!”

  In a feat of inhuman acrobatics, Anaar tosses JaMarkus into the air, grabbing his leg as he runs up a tree, spinning him around, his body breaking through the trees in the radius, then sends him streaking to the ground like a meteor. With his rapid regeneration, JaMarkus’ ability to survive a seemingly insurmountable level of punishment once again became his vehicle for torment. Following shortly after, Anaar crashes down onto him, shattering most of the bones in his pelvic region. Raining blows on him incessantly, something kept urging him to continue the abuse.

  Delirious from the pain, JaMarkus began to cackle at the top of his lungs, growing louder with each strike. “Everything you do is an attempt to make up for the fact that you will never be as good as me! No matter how much you destroy my body, I’ll just keep getting right back up! You will never be able to come to terms with my superiority as a True Quintessence! Something you’ll never have!”

  Anaar’s fist stopped just short of another blow to the mangled mess beneath him that was rapidly regaining its shape. “Wait. Is that really what this has been about? You think I’m jealous of you being a True Quintessence?”

  “Of course! You live in terror knowing that no matter what you do, even if you have the advantage now, I have the potential to infinitely evolve and surpass you every time!”

  Anaar simply stares down at the thin dark-skinned man who had fully healed with the exception of the rags that were now his clothes. The manic laughter for some reason twisted something deep inside of Anaar. He could feel his temperature rising as the man’s ridicule continued.

  “put HIM in His PLACE!”

  Anaar gave himself over to the voice inside, as his face twisted into a demonic caricature of its normal appearance. With a sneer, the ghoulish face leaned down, placing a gentle kiss on the still cackling man’s forehead, then whispering in a raspy voice into his ear.

  “I’ll show you true terror.”

  In a thunderous snap, the canopy of trees all around them incinerated, leaving behind a snowfall of black. The ashes fluttering gently to the ground was a scene in direct opposition to the massive skull of roiling blue flame. Though Anaar had learned his lesson and covered himself in a shield to prevent the heat damage to everything he was wearing, nothing else in the area was spared. Spectators all around who were on the edge of their seat, the dazzling spectacle being somehow greater than the previous one-sided beating, shouted at their screens in anger as the footage from every feed was lost.

  Though the menacing skull hung high in the sky, hungry and chittering, the intense heat it gave off had already caused the surrounding temperature to skyrocket well over 400 despite the massive area and the distance from the ground. JaMarkus’ skin and the surrounding forest began to burn as Anaar stood from his position where he was straddling the hapless man.

  “I’ll show you the power of a real True Quintessence.”

  For the first time since the exchange, JaMarkus’ face was frozen in only one expression: Horror. Despite the stifling heat and his body burning, he could not help but wheeze out in belabored breaths.

  “How is it blue?”

  “Guess you missed that part of science class. The higher the intensity, the further on the color spectrum it goes. I could have gone completely ultraviolet, but I wanted you to see and understand the gap between us once and for all.”

  “KiLL HIM!”

  Raising his hand to the sky, the ravenous skull chittered in excitement as it was finally going to get its meal. Bringing his hand down as if he was pulling the skull itself out of the sky with a strain, the raging construct of death rushed toward the already burning and helpless JaMarkus with palpable excitement

  “fInISh iT!”

  W
ith every inch the skull dropped, the temperature spiked. As it closed in on the ground, nothing was spared from burning. JaMarkus’ body was a bubbled, blackened husk by the time his eyes burst from the light and heat of the giant blue flaming skull that he was transfixed upon. Two meters before impact something inside Anaar seemed to awaken.

  What are you doing?!

  At the last moment he diverted the skull, it crashing in the distance away from them, leaving a deep hole as it burned through the ground. Anaar fell to the ground, shaking his head, somewhat dazed. When he looked around at the wreckage surrounding him, it was hard to believe he had let it go so far.

  “FoOL! WEAK! so WeAK!!”

  In his moment of clarity, he remembered something from his childhood about a bear and preventing forest fires. Wondering if he still got credit for doing the responsible thing even if he was the one who started the forest fire, he immediately extinguished all the flames. Never more grateful for Phavian’s abilities, he was also able to immediately return the area to an appropriate temperature. It was still much warmer than it should have been, but no longer would things immediately combust.

  With all the stationary cameras in a wide radius destroyed, drones could finally make their way to survey the scene without being destroyed by the heat. Still upset such an exciting finale was taken away from them, residents all around campus were incensed, not even Hobb’s outpouring of infectious charisma being enough to quell their fury. It was only when the first drone finally made it to the site that everyone fell into a collective silence. One quarter of the second largest above ground zone had vanished. In its place was nothing but a large area of scorched earth and a massive hole that appeared to have magma bubbling at the bottom of it.

  Anaar noted that JaMarkus managed to still be alive, even if only barely. Thinking to himself that the guy was harder to kill than a cockroach, he found himself thankful for the belligerent man’s hardy constitution, or else things could have ended poorly for him. Checking on his well-being, Anaar found even JaMarkus’ regeneration had its limits, with many parts of his body simply refusing to heal. Kickstarting his regeneration and taking care of some of the more troublesome areas, Anaar let out a sigh of relief once he was sure JaMarkus would recover, even if it took much longer than it usually would.

  In his treatment of JaMarkus, Anaar had ignored the flames that had rekindled themselves. Though it was nothing compared to the raging inferno that had created the now wasteland, if left unchecked, it could potentially be problematic. He moved to snuff out the new flames, but instead became occupied with a person rushing toward him. While most people were doing their best to move clear of the zone, this person was dashing headlong into it. He was not positive, but he had a good idea who it was making their way toward him.

  A woman, average in every way came running toward him, seemingly with no regard for the fact she was completely exposed in the open flaming expanse of black. She ground to a halt when she saw Anaar, pointing a finger accusingly as she panned her hand around.

  “You! You did this didn’t you?! Can’t you just show some restraint for once!? Thanks to you, I lost my place in the top five! After all this you can’t have much left in the tank! I’ll finish you off and be the new number 1 in the class! You have made this so easy for me!”

  All the fire in the area begins to swirl around the woman, it coalescing into a lance of flame. It was clear she was not used to handling such a volume of fire, because the effort on her face was obvious, and the rapidly accumulating sweat from the heat was beginning to pour. With a great heave, she propelled the lance with all her might, sending it racing toward Anaar.

  “rEDEMptiOn! KiLL hEr!”

  With a great breath, Anaar inhaled the gigantic lance of flame as it approached him. Once he had consumed the construct in its entirety, his cheeks puffed for a moment and then he let out a huge belch. The woman’s legs began to tremble, her mind telling her to run until she gave out, but her legs failing to respond to the command.

  “Wha… what in the hell are you?! Did you just eat my lance?!”

  Anaar laughs heartly, doubling over and slapping his thigh, then straightening with a twisted grin. “Your lance? I think you have it backwards. You didn’t really think you could hurt me with my own flames now did you?! Since you seem to feel so sore about it, why don’t I give it back?”

  Inhaling a deep breath, with what looked to be him spitting something out with all his might, the flaming lance reemerged, twice as large and intense as before, this time spiraling toward the woman. Nothing she could do would allow her to even slightly divert the lance, as she took the full brunt of the attack. Her clothes burned to cinders and she suffered third degree burns all over her body, patches of hair missing from the attack. The naked and severely burned woman lay twitching on the ground, moaning in pain and agony.

  Shrugging as he walked away, Anaar grumbled to the air as he made his departure. “She was the one who wanted it back. Not my fault her flame resistance is shit… Well, that killed some of the boredom, I guess I’ll take a nap for a while.”

  He continued making his way to the tree line that survived as the shocked spectators everywhere now had the confirmation they were lacking before. Anaar Vorpahl was scary enough just as a Demolitionist. Now he had just revealed he was a True Fire Quintessence. Having been ordered to stay put until the scene was safe, the medical team came to recover the pyrokinetic woman and JaMarkus once it was deemed an acceptable risk. The Medics were stunned at how much damage was done to a Schrodes that it could prevent his regeneration to such an extent. They also were flabbergasted to see that the Pyrokinetic’s file said she was immune to flame.

  The team found themselves feeling like brats for complaining about the Melee from the past year. Everyone expected Anaar Vorpahl to make their lives difficult, but to their surprise, he was not at all problematic. Now in the current competition, he seemed determined to deliver what everyone had been expecting and more. As they were leaving, the Transporter looked to the Medic with a question in her eyes.

  “An explosion did all this?”

  “Oh, you didn’t hear?! Turns out this kid is actually a True Fire Quintessence.”

  “What?! How has he been keeping that under wraps for so long?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. No one I have talked to had even the slightest clue. Even his records in Exploration don’t mention it.”

  “Wow. Think he is going to win the School Rankings this year?”

  The man looks at the Transporter with a smirk. “If he doesn’t, that boyfriend of his must have some mighty good dick!”

  The two laugh as they take the severely burned woman through the portal, her shallow, ragged breaths indicating their emergency care was working. The Transporter takes one final sweeping glance at the obsidian stretch of barren land as she enters her portal and closes it behind her.

  15

  In her hike through the forest, Maggie was beginning to become disturbed at how little activity there was. In her last Melee, she had no shortage of skirmishes, and when she was lucky, the irresponsible victim that let their guard down in a place where they could be hit from afar. Unlike the many people who used firearms, her bow was completely silent, even to some of the best audial Synestates, and due to her abilities, her range exceeded almost everyone.

  It felt almost as if she was being actively avoided. She would expect such behavior toward someone such as Anaar, or even Phavian, but after her Melee, people looked upon her with disdain for being third in their class. Most people felt she did not earn her place. While the opinion did change some after the School Rankings Tournament, she still got the feeling everyone doubted her abilities. Why then would everyone be avoiding her?

  The longer she walked, the more frustrated she became, until finally she came across someone. She immediately drew her bow, ready for a fight, but instead, the man jumped like a frightened kitten and began to run. Maggie was so confused by the turn of events, she did not immediat
ely chase the man, but instead stood stupefied. Realizing the man was escaping, she nocked her arrow aiming directly at his buttocks, and loosed her arrow. It flying true, it hit her mark and the man crumpled to the ground, howling in pain.

  She ran to catch up to the man, eager to stop his wailing so their position would not be given away. As she closed in on him, she was drawn back to her thoughts from earlier when she hesitated. She knew this man. He was an Artillerite, quite a good one if she recalled correctly. His name was Orion and they had been on a team a few times in class. As their roles were similar, they were often separated as to best cover the most ground, but she had worked with him nonetheless. Once she finally caught up to him, she bent down, clamping her hand over his mouth.

  “Will you shut up?! You are going to bring area running! Why are you making all this noise?!”

  Growling from beneath her hand, she could feel his teeth, and spittle wetting her hand as he responded. “You shot me in the fucking ass! That shit hurts!”

  “And I’ll shoot you again if you don’t start talking. Why did you run from me?”

  The man turned his head in defiance, the pain in his face evident. Maggie, not in the mood for games now that she had finally found someone, she flicked him in the head, enhancing the effect so that it gave him a splitting headache.

  “Spill it!”

  “As if you don’t already know…”

  “If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking! Everyone acts like I don’t deserve my ranking, so I can’t be that scary!”

  “You aren’t! No one give a fuck about you! It’s that freakshow Anaar we are worried about! We all know he will somehow find out we were responsible for taking you out, and he will then seek us out, and blow our fucking arms off or something! Everyone loves him for what he does for our class, but we all know better than to cross you or Phavian because of what he will do.”