Sacrifices

by Alan D Jones

Chapter 22 - The Cost

  July, 1981 - North Hudson Bay, Canada

  As the years stream by, I find that life is less about finding the right answers, than it is about asking the right questions. Energy spent chasing after answers to the wrong questions, can never be recaptured.

  Sarah and her sisters rode from the aircraft carrier towards the eastern shore of the island in the cargo bay of a large helicopter. Snow fell softly to the ground. Through the port window, they could see about one- third of the battlefield. In the distance towards the west, they could see flashes of light as shells fell upon the enemy’s position. They cringed when they witnessed flashes of light cascading across the land and into the bay. They wanted to rush to the defense of the sailors and soldiers, but there was a plan.

  Henri was also on the chopper. He spoke quietly to the sisters, “I know you ladies have got this, but I have my Red Guard and two legions offshore beneath the sea. I know we’ve played along with Matasis, but we have no intention of going quietly into the night if things go awry.”

  Cil smiled and glanced at Deborah. Cil knew that they were also there because of their interest in Deborah’s well-being.

  Henri conceded, “Well, yes, but that’s a secondary matter. Now, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is. And, for that reason, I’m going to need to ask that you trust me when I ask you to stand down regardless of what you see.”

  Henri shook his head, “Okay, but I don’t get it.

  All four sisters were dressed in snow white thermal with their hair pulled back tight. This afforded a rare instance where one could see their common features, such as their cheekbones. Their beauty testified that they were indeed their mother’s daughters.

  Sarah went over strategy with Big Mike, Cil and Ruth Ann. Deborah paced back and forth. She talked a lot of trash and punched members of Rob’s squad in the shoulders to get everyone hyped for battle.

  The chopper hovered offshore in near-total darkness. Even the instrument panels were barely visible. From a high altitude, they watched for the signal. Then, the portal came to life.

  Big Mike called to the pilot, “Okay, that’s it. Take us down.”

  The back of the copter opened up and the men started pushing munitions payloads out into the night. Their chutes opened to guide them towards the eastern beach.

  Sarah grabbed Deborah’s arm , “Hey, remember. Leave Chase to me or Cil, okay?”

  Deborah just smiled as she tied a metal staff to her back.

  Ruth called out, “Look! They’re already coming through the portal. It’s one of those Tambrin Tigers.”

  “Hey, that’s our cue!” Deborah shouted above the din.

  She drew Athena’s bow and released a golden energy arrow towards the Tambrin Tiger as she jumped out of the back of the helicopter.

  A stunned Ruth looked at Cil and cried, “She can’t fly!”

  Cil responded, “So, I guess you better go get her!”

  Ruth grabbed another of the metal staffs and jumped. Sarah glanced out of the side port just long enough to see that Deborah had hit her mark. The golden arrow lodged itself into the giant demon’s head.

  “How does she do that?” Sarah exclaimed.

  Then she asked in a low voice, “Cil, what of Elisa? She’s not here?”

  “Is that a question? Set your sails and fret not about the wind, for that is wasted breath.” Cil smiled and rose touching the cross beneath her garment, “Have faith, little sister.”

  Cil grabbed her staff in one hand and a thin metal one in the other before jumping into the chaos. Sarah gave Big Mike and the rest of Rob’s crew a wide smile before illuminating and flying, staff in hand, out of the back of the craft.

  Ruth had, indeed, caught Deborah as she went free-falling toward the eastern shore. They landed in a blue glow followed in quick succession by first Sarah and then Cil. Cil twirled her rod rapidly to create a cone of air and snow to cushion her landing. Upon landing each of the sisters tied a red flag to each of the staffs they carried and drove them into the icy snow. The blood red flags flapped in the western wind

  Cil stepped between her sisters and pulled out her horn. She looked out across the beach towards the battlefield before placing the horn to her lips. Then, she blew louder than her sisters had ever heard her blow the sacred horn before. Three times it sounded. Each time, more wicked ones turned towards the East. Many of the demons within hearing range knew the sound of this horn all too well. Although Cil wanted to aid the forces in the west by drawing the attention of the demon hordes with the sound of her horn, announcing their presence with the horn was primarily for the benefit of the Council of Nob. Matasis and his compatriots would become enraged. Cil could use that anger to her benefit.

  Ruth set a blue wall of energy across the beach to protect the special forces that would be landing after them. Then, the four sisters formed a battle square on the bluff overlooking the beach and girded themselves for the onslaught. Cil held her staff with two hands. Deborah removed her glistening Ebony Sword from its sheath. Ruth generated a glowing blue sword with rotating teeth like a chain saw. Sarah tossed her shades aside to reveal her eyes. They glowed brightly orange and red. In her hand, Sarah held a flaming sword of her own making that could burn through both flesh and spirit.

  This was the close in combat they had trained for with Cousin Rob for all those years. Their goal was to clear the area of enemy combatants. A lot of these lesser demons ran about in this melee. Any one of these opportunistic creatures would jump at the chance to stab one of the sisters in the back. In blowing her horn, Cil drew the demons into the open.

  As the first wave arrived, Cil called out a rotation, “Red.”

  Red signified a certain movement pattern much like commands called out within a Roman battle square more than a thousand years before. A large demon stood before Cil, with its mouth agape as it roared foulness into the air. As quickly as it had begun to roar, it fell silent. Its head landed in the snow.

  Deborah made herself and her sword invisible. Then, she proceeded to make mincemeat of demons approaching from the rear. The enemy could not see Deborah, but her sisters knew exactly where she was. Her animated smack talk, as well as their years of training , let her sisters know exactly where she was at all times. The sisters crisscrossed the landscape in a well-rehearsed pattern.

  Ruth shouted to Deborah, “You know they don’t understand you, right?”

  Sarah, laughing as her light dissipated the dark shadows that had gathered around her, replied, “And, you remember your sister is crazy, right?” She said this loudly enough for Deborah to hear as well.

  Deborah cracked back, “You’re just jealous because I’m more entertaining than you’ll ever be.”

  After the initial wave, the sisters began to shift their square back and forth along the bluff. Their synchronized movements were a thing of beauty. It was as if they were all playing a song that only they knew. Just as when they played music together late into the night, they kept time with one another on the battlefield as well. They continued their dance until they’d cleared the area enough for Ruth to expand her protective shield. It now protected the beach and the bluff enough to set up a staging area. The barrier would keep out the majority of monsters, and it would give the troops a place to retreat to, if needed.

  As Big Mike and the other Special Forces team descended from the sky, Cil turned to Sarah and said, “It’s time.”

  Sarah took to the air alone. She ascended rapidly like a rocket shining ever brighter as she gained altitude.

  Ruth asked, “She will be okay, right?”

  Deborah replied quickly, “Sure she will be. Isn’t she always?” Still Deborah added her own quiet prayer, “Godspeed, little sister.”

  Cil fought back the tears. Then, gathering herself, she called to Deborah and Ruth, “Alright. Their ‘A’ team will be here in just under sixty seconds. Remember, remember let’s rope-a-dope these clowns.”

  Big Mike an
d his team climbed the bluff. They moved quickly inland to the predetermined high ground to provide sniper cover across the battlefield. The five positions were spread out over a couple of miles. Mike marched off to the western side of their location so that he might better assist Gabby and the other forces in the west whenever the opportunity arose. It was thought that the remnants of Rob’s team were gifted enough to protect themselves even though each of them would be isolated in their own foxholes.

  After Mike’s team left, the entire Council of Nob gathered before the Sisters. There stood Matasis, Isadora, Chase, Zi, Destry and Poseidon.

  Matasis mocked, “Oh, you bastard children of fallen angels, why do you struggle so hard?”

  Matasis looked at Cil and nodded his head. In the next moment, Destry and Zi began a full on assault against Cil. First, Destry launched several mini-missiles from his armor towards Cil’s feet and followed up with a disintegration beam. Both actions caused Cil to jump back just a bit. But, an opening was all that Zi needed. She reached towards the ground and, immediately, a giant wall of ever-growing ice rose around Cil. The ice enveloped her as it grew. Cil spun and swung against it only to have more ice take its place. The block of ice grew in height, width and depth until it became a small glacier sliding north along the bluff away from her sisters.

  At the same time Cil was attacked, Isadora and Poseidon set their sights on Deborah.

  The space god shouted, “Quickly, before she disappears again.”

  But, Isadora was already in action breathing black smoke from her mouth. The smoke behaved very much like iron filings around a magnet. Poseidon then lifted his trident towards the smoke-covered Deborah and hot bursts of energy streamed from its tips into the target obliterating her.

  Isadora complained, “Oh, I so wanted to take that one home with me. She was spunky.”

  Poseidon, never missing an opportunity to speak ill of a “mortal” added his two cents, “Yes, a good court jester is hard to find.”

  Matasis and Chase turned their attention to Ruth. For this encounter, Matasis reverted to his original form. Long black wings sprung from his back and his face elongated horribly. His clawed feet burst through his boots and his hands became talons. Chase silently drew his sword and marched through the snow towards Ruth.

  Matasis crowed, “What a shame that you will die, never truly knowing who or what you are. I’ll do you this favor. Your Uncle Paul is not a descendant of an angel as you were led to believe. No, he’s actually an angel… a cast out one. See, he was a part of the rebellion, just as I was and still am.”

  Matasis smiled wickedly and continued, “Now, though he is damned, he fights for your team. But, me? Well, I’m still working to tear all of this down, and if I can possess the Dream Box, I can start anew, building creation in my own image. So, where is it, darling?”

  Ruth shook her head. She’d heard the prophecy, but she didn’t know much about that. She left those matters to Cil as did her other sisters.

  Matasis nodded in Ruth’s direction signaling Chase to proceed. Chase became intangible and continued towards Ruth. He swung his sword as he marched through her protective veils. Stumbling, Ruth fell down into the snow. Suddenly, Ruth realized that Matasis saw her as the weak link. He had split the sisters up so that he could corner her for the information he wanted. This realization angered Ruth so much that she stood up and scowled at her opponents.

  Ruth, who didn’t curse, shouted, “Look, A-hole, I don’t know who you think I am, or who you think I’m not, but I ain’t telling you a darn thing.”

  With those words Ruth threw up her hands towards Chase, firing a series of bubbles at him. At first, Chase laughed. But, his laughter didn’t last long. Chase soon discovered that these bubbles were not like the ones Ruth typically used. They were elastic and sticky. Even though he was in his intangible form, these bubbles had the effect of surrounding him in blue bubble gum.

  Ruth launched herself through the air like a missile headed directly for Matasis. She hit him right in his midsection wrapping her arms around him and taking him down like a linebacker. Matasis dislodged Ruth just long enough to regain his balance. He gripped her in his talons trying to infect her with his spirit of deformity and disorder, but her personal shield held firm. Ruth formed a wedge of blue energy to free herself from Matasis. The demon then unleashed a beam of ethereal energy which Ruth fought to deflect. As she did, the snow and air around her blackened. Ruth didn’t know what Matasis was doing, but she knew that it would not be good for her. So, she took to the air.

  Ruth issued a series of three bubbles towards Matasis with the apparent intent of capturing him inside one of them. Matasis responded by opening his mouth and spawning three demonic minions, one for each bubble. This was what Ruth really wanted. Years earlier, Ruth and her sisters had noticed that when Matasis spawned a demon, he closed his eyes. As the demons were flying out of his mouth, Ruth was diving through the air towards Matasis. She collided with him midair delivering a blow so powerful that it drove him back to the ground.

  Before Ruth could press her advantage, she felt a coldness that she’d never known before. It was Isadora swiping her hand down Ruth’s back. The demon queen stared into Ruth’s eyes, trying to absorb her essence. A soul snatch would have killed most Circle Knights. Ruth dropped to her knees. Poseidon followed up Isadora’s move with a tremendous energy burst from his trident. The strike drove Ruth back and down into the permafrost.

  Slightly up the coast, Zi, who had more respect for the sister’s abilities than did her comrades, continued to pile ice onto Cil. She wasn’t sure how much ice it would take to keep Cil imprisoned. So, she kept adding to her glacier. Suddenly, her second sense told her to duck. As she spun, she saw locks of her black hair fall onto the white snow. Zi immediately became mist riding the wind up and away from the attack.

  Destry exclaimed, “What the heck?” as he rode his battle wagon skyward as well. He realized that Deborah was on the ground and he released a series of concussion bombs. The individual bombs were incredibly small, but the blasts they created were comparable to conventional bombs. While making his bombing run, Destry drifted a little too close to the glacier. When he did, Cil sprang from the ice and onto his chariot. Even though the chariot had its own force shield, Cil balanced herself atop the shield long enough to rattle off a series of blows before Destry was able to shake her off. His shield was state of the art alien technology, but still it flickered beneath Cil’s blows. Destry saw that Cil could levitate by spinning her staff at supersonic speed. Destry sped off to the south to rejoin the other Council of Nob members.

  Zi had been casting bolts of lightning down through the smoke at Deborah. Deborah returned golden arrows upward towards her. Neither could see the other, but they could sense one another. Zi shook her head as her teammate retreated without her.

  She couldn’t help call out, “That punk!”

  Cil landed in a whirlwind down below pushing the smoke away just enough for all three women to see one another.

  When Cil observed, Destry fleeing, she asked Zi , “So, that’s who you aligned yourself with?”

  “Pitiful isn’t it?” Zi confessed.

  Deborah said, “Elisa told us about how hard you had it growing up and how things got even worse once she was cast into The Pit. She also told us how the Elders hunted you. So, we get that you think the world is crap, but are you so into the whole destructive creation thing that you’re willing to do this?”

  Zi called down, “Look at the world. We’re not heading to Hell. We’re already there. The sooner we bring about Armageddon, the sooner we’ll end all of this suffering. There is a certain kind of peace in such a death.”

  Deborah twisted her head and asked, “So, that’s what you got from Bible Study three hundred years ago?”

  “No, that’s what I got from my life the last three hundred years.” With those words Zi became mist again and left them.

  Cil and Deborah shared a sad
glance. Cil felt that if Zi had not been head of the cult she led that she might have walked away from all of this. It was almost as if she was doing this to save face with her followers. Or perhaps she wanted to support Chase in return for his kindness to her all those years ago.

  Farther south along the beach, the other four Council of Nob members were taking turns trying to keep Ruth down. She kept getting up.

  Chase complained, “You guys have had your turn. Let me put my blade in her and she’ll stay down.

  Isadora commented, “Hey, just wait a minute. You’ve killed your share.”

  Chase replied, “And?”

  Poseidon chirped, “And, wait. This is the most interesting thing today. Honestly, I thought they’d put up a better fight. But, this one with the bubbles might be worth keeping alive to study.”

  Ruth stumbled to her feet as though she was drunk. Poseidon motioned to Isadora and Matasis to fire upon Ruth in unison with him. Ruth put up her hands but was blasted back onto the beach and into the frigid water. Their collective blast created a crater on the beach which the sea quickly filled. The four of them waited long moments as a couple of empty waves crashed the shore. On the third wave, Ruth washed ashore. The villains watched anxiously for a moment. They let out a collective gasp as Ruth rose to her hands and knees. Poseidon shook his head. He was truly impressed with a human for the first time in several thousand years. Poseidon was so impressed that he looked skyward to call down a capture team from his armada.

  Before Poseidon could utter a word in his native tongue, Chase called out, “Wait…” At that moment, Chase realized the meaning of the phrase Zi had heard on the wind: rope-a-dope.

  Destry rode toward them frantically shouting, “Cil and Deborah are free and headed this way.”

  Suddenly, a brightly-glowing missile came out of the western sky and hit the beach next to Ruth. Sarah had returned.

  Without a word, Chase ran to the staging area that Ruth had shielded with one of her bubbles. First, he and his sword became intangible. He swung his blade against the barrier. The metal hit the blue field and stopped mid-air. The sword vibrated vigorously in his hand. He tried to stick his own hand through the blue wall. No matter how hard he tried, Chase could not breach the barrier. Chase knew that every Circle Knight was trained to keep one skill or one move secret from the world. At long last, he knew what Ruth’s secret was. Her ability was adaptive. She had the ability to adapt her barriers to withstand any force or weapon she encountered. The show she’d just put on, as well as all the little skirmishes over the years, were making her invulnerable against their attacks.

  “Rope-a-dope,” Chase said to himself.

  Chase realized that sticking with the rest of the Council would jeopardize his own agenda. So, he separated himself from the group. Chase knew that, if he played his cards right, his own secret ability would win the day for him.

  Poseidon ripped two of the crystals from his neck and tossed them into the sea behind the two sisters. Within moments one sprung up as a leviathan and the other as a kraken. The size of the creatures was breathtaking. Mortals within sight of the bay lost heart at the sight of them. The kraken reached ashore wrapping both Ruth and Sarah in its tentacles and dragging them down below the surface. The leviathan breached the surface before it dived in after them. Cil and Deborah arrived on the scene as their younger sisters were being dragged down.

  Isadora turned to Poseidon and asked, “I thought you killed her?”

  “Deborah the Deceiver is a fitting name, then. We shall make sure that it is on her tombstone.”

  Poseidon tilted his trident towards Deborah and Cil and a flood of water flowed from it like a mighty river. Deborah stretched out her hands, palms up, as her eyes rolled back in her head. The ground beneath the snow rose up to create an earthen wall that steered the rushing waters to the sea. Deborah then replicated herself. Multiple images of her formed all around the beach.

  Isadora called up Ammit, a monster from the underworld. The immortal beast had the head of a crocodile and the body of a lion. He was the size of an elephant. Ammit was a well-known consumer of bodies and souls. Around his neck was a mane of vipers.

  Cil moved away to draw the beast toward herself. When Ammit opened his mouth, a rush of air, snow, demons, walking dead, and mortals were sucked into his jowls. Cil spun her staff faster and faster until a portal to The Pit opened up.

  The abomination cackled. It had originated from one of the lower levels of The Pit and had no fear of it. If Cil sent him back there, he would return with two more like himself. Cil turned to her left and created a second portal into The Pit before the first one could dissipate. She spun her staff back and forth between the two ever faster.

  Then, she said the words just as her father had taught her, “In the name of the Almighty, potest albeit!” The beast was pulled apart between the two gates Cil had opened.

  Cil turned to Isadora and asked her, “Do you have any more servants you’d like sent back to Hell? We’re running a two for one special today.”

  As the day was fading, lights flickered beneath the turbulent sea. A bright light, the color of the sun rose from the water into the sky like a beacon and a horrific boom echoed across the island. In the next moment, Sarah and Ruth erupted from the boiling water into the air.

  Poseidon’s mouth dropped open. Pieces of his monsters floated on the water’s surface. He looked skyward and attempted to call down air strikes from his armada. He called to them three times. Nothing. Then, a shadow passed over the eastern beach and a deafening sound like the horns of a thousand tankers pulling into port at once rolled over the entire island. Poseidon knew that sound was the imminent impact siren. Still, he did not believe what he feared. He looked to the west and saw his smoldering fleet, ship after ship, descending from the sky like rain. The first one landed with a crash that shook the entire island. The ground trembled with the impact of each subsequent ship.

  Deborah commented to Isadora, “I think you made my little sister upset. That was not a good move. In fact, I think you’ve made them both a bit mad.”

  A flash of blinding light erupted from Sarah’s eyes. The beam was so bright that it blinded any who gazed upon it. The target was Destry’s sky chariot. The chariot, despite its force shield, was sliced it in half. Destry barely managed to escape and jetted behind his comrades where he tried to hide from Sarah.

  All eight remaining images of Deborah, who had been quite busy playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with Matasis and the space god, jumped up and down and shouted, “Them my sisters!”

  Shaken, Poseidon made a beeline through the air to the sea. He reverted to the first tactic he’d learned as a child nearly a million years ago. He created a tidal wave. By the time it reached shore, it was at least twenty stories tall. Ruth lifted up her right hand and created a blue wall that held the building wave back. As she did, the sky grew dark in the west. It was Zi. In her short absence, she had conjured not one, but two, category four tornados. Each was headed towards the beach. Several of the soldiers were in their path. Cil raced off to carry them to safety.

  Ruth didn’t say a word. She stretched out her left hand and created a second barrier to the west that reached from the ground to the clouds. It would have been easier to divert the tornadoes to the south, but the allied fleet was in that direction. Instead, Ruth steered the twisters to the north. She focused completely on the task at hand. There was no room for error. Sarah and Deborah kept Matasis, Isadora, and the undead minions away from Ruth. A single bead of sweat rolled down Ruth’s forehead to the tip of her nose and froze there. At last, the storms passed to the north. The tidal wave waters crested and flowed back into the sea.

  Destry couldn’t help but utter, “My God…,” before fleeing inland.

  Cil returned to the beach and they readied for the next round with their opponents. The sisters knew that Zi could spin up tornados with a lot less effort than it took Ruth to divert them. One of them would n
eed to shut Zi down quickly. Plus, Chase the Saint Killer, who by name and record was the deadliest of their opponents, was AWOL.

  Suddenly, over the cresting wave, the sisters saw a brown and gold winged beast soaring across the sky. A lone figure rode the beast. They swept to the south before turning north and descending to the beach. The sisters knew before the dragon landed that its rider was a friend rather than a foe.

  “Hello, Ladies. Am I late?” the rider said before dismounting.

  Collectively, the sisters said, “Elisa!”

  Elisa was dressed in black with black gloves and a black cape with a reflective lining. She had escaped the trap laid for her by Matasis and crew, in part, by causing them to see what she wanted them to see. Also, she had never revealed that she didn’t need a reflective surface when only teleporting herself. Keeping up the pretense across the centuries was a burden at times, but it did, as she imagined it would one day, save her life. She smiled at the girls before getting down to business.

  “First off, since all our cards are on the table, let’s dispense with the charades. Just call me ‘Grandma’. Secondly, see that arrogant, soul-stealing heifer over there with her mouth hanging open?” Elisa said as she pointed at Isadora, “See, that’s the face you make when you realize that you underestimated your opponent. You don’t ever want to have that face. Thirdly, I’ll take care of Zi. I owe her that.”

  Elisa spoke softly into her dragon’s ear as she pointed to the demons, monsters and zombies before smacking her on the side and saying loudly, “Go girl!”

  The dragon took to the air again and incinerating the creatures as they ran amok .

  Elisa turned to her granddaughters and said, “Meet me at the Omni Portal when you’re done. I’ve got some cleaning up to do.”

  With those words Elisa marched off towards the west and disappeared into the falling snow.

  Ruth motioned towards the sea before asking Sarah, “So where is he?”

  “Right there, on the sea floor,” Sarah said. She pointed.

  Ruth looked back at Cil and Deborah, “You can wait here behind the barrier until we get back, if you like. It won’t take long.”

  Deborah laughed at the inference in Ruth’s words.

  Ruth turned towards the water and, after closing her eyes briefly, stretched out her hands. Moving her arms in a parting motion, the waters parted down to the bay floor revealing an awestruck Poseidon standing on the sea floor about one mile from shore. His red and blue skin made the giant easy to spot in the valley between the two walls of water. Sarah glided in and landed about twenty yards in front of the space god. Sarah smiled, but it was not friendly. She removed a piece of paper sealed in a thin blue film from her waist. Sarah unrolled the document and read, “To the space alien known as Poseidon, it has been declared by the Circle Knight Elders…”

  “What is this?” an incredulous Poseidon asked.

  As Sarah lifted her right hand towards the heavens she replied, “You really don’t know what this is?”

  She twisted her extended hand and every falling snowflake across the island became a burning coal that ignited any wicked spirit they fell upon.

  Poseidon exclaimed, “Am I to be executed like some common criminal?”

  “Oh, no,” Sarah said as she walked towards Poseidon, “you’re worse than a common criminal. But, know this, while I could have struck you down from a hundred miles away, I chose not to. Because before your death I wanted to offer you an opportunity to understand something of how the countless beings you have slaughtered felt when you took their lives and, in many cases, their entire world as well. No, you do not deserve a quick death from afar. And even today is not the justice you deserve, but that Day of Judgment awaits you as well.”

  Sarah’s flaming sword then appeared in her hands again as it had when she landed on this island. Poseidon shot at her with every spectrum of energy weapon he possessed, but none of them were as powerful as the energy pent up within Sarah. Then, she was upon the giant. He swung with his right hand above her head. She countered with her flaming red hot sword across his abdomen. A bright red and blue light began to beam out of the gash, followed by a glowing jelly like substance. Poseidon stumbled back a step, but before he could take a second step back, Sarah sprang into the air spinning counter-clockwise. As she did, a flaming silver dagger appeared in her right hand. She drove it through the execution decree and into the forehead of the space god. Poseidon fell backwards landing on the sea floor with a thud.

  Sarah glanced up at Ruth before blasting into the sky and back to shore. Ruth released the waters so they washed over Poseidon. When Sarah landed, the two sisters turned to see fire falling like snow across the island and the resulting chaos. The mortals took a moment to realize that the fire would not burn their flesh although it was a hazard to their clothing.

  Sarah turned to Ruth and said, “Your turn.”

  Destry and his ilk had a record of trying to take their opponent down with them when they realized that their cause was lost. Destry had no problem with taking out half the island in any death cry that might be awaiting him. For the moment, although he realized that the tide had turned, he hadn’t fully given up on the battle. He needed to get away from the beach so he could consider his options. Destry could call in reinforcements from the war camp deep in the Amazon jungle. Using alien technology, he would have a hundred well-armed, chaos-hungry soldiers there in twenty minutes. He had supplied some of the technicians from the camp to support starting up the Omni Portal, but had held back contributing any regular troops. He didn’t send more troops because Poseidon’s armada had been floating in space above the island. His men would have been sitting ducks. Poseidon had promised that the Destry could work as mercenaries in his global conquests once the Portal was done, but Destry never trusted Poseidon.

  The good news was that the fire fall Sarah had created incinerated many of the roaming flesh-hungry abominations that had begun to assault him when he left the beach. On the downside, he wasn’t sure how much longer his battle armor would hold up against the firestorm. It didn’t burn his skin and seemed to be mostly for demons, but it was causing his armor to peel.

  Destry’s other option was to leave. With a tailwind, his battle suit could get him nearly two hundred miles south. He could blend in for a while until the other Destry caught up with him and returned him to their camp to stand before the tribunal. According to Destry law, retreat was the only offense punishable by death. Still, that was a better option to him than to be killed by a bunch of women. For Destry, that was worse than any possible outcome.

  Ruth caught up with Destry near the middle of the island. He was walking west and mumbling to himself as the occasional bullet from one of the Special Forces snipers pinged against his fading armor. Ruth landed right in front of Destry stopping him dead in his tracks. Nervously, Ruth removed the Elders decree from her waist and began to read it to Destry.

  Destry shook his head, “You can’t be serious? You mean to tell me the ghosts in the mist sent shrinking violet out here to execute me? Why can’t those yellow-bellied cowards step out from behind the veil and do it themselves? I can’t have this. My entire legacy will be stricken from our books if I let this go down like this.”

  Ruth tried to interject, “Actually, this decree is for the Destry, plural…”

  “What? Look, sweet britches, I actually think I could take you, but I’d rather not risk it the way things have been going here the last few minutes. So, I’m pressing this here button and taking out me, you, the trigger happy fellas on the hill over there and half this island with me. Enjoy the ride, Senorita!”

  Destry had initiated the countdown on an alien explosive device that had the destructive effect of a nuclear weapon without the residual radiation. Ruth knew that she had about five seconds before the device detonated. She stretched out her hands towards Destry, releasing bubble after bubble, each of which enveloped him. Right before the blast, Destry’s expression tu
rned from jovial to disappointment. The energy from the explosion shone like a new blue star through Ruth’s bubbles. Ruth continued to push against the blast force as pressure continued to increase against her, but she refused to give up. Finally, it stabilized and Ruth sent the small new star up into sky where it belonged.

  Further south on the island, Elisa caught up with her protégé.

  She called out to her, “Zi!”

  Zi squatted in the snow as she had as the little girl Elisa took in so long ago. But, this was a far different place, both physically and spiritually. Perhaps, it was not so different for Zi emotionally. As the fire flakes continued to fall around Zi, electricity arced from her into the ground or into any hostile beings with designs on her. Zi looked at her former mentor through her tears. Black mascara streaked her face.

  Zi laughed a bit, “So you are here. I knew you weren’t dead, but I didn’t say anything.”

  “I know.”

  “But if you’re here, I know you have a plan to shut that damn thing down. You always have a plan.”

  “No, not always.”

  “Like when you killed that overseer?”

  “Yes, those five minutes of anger took me away from you when you needed me most. Please forgive me.”

  Zi asked, “Forgive you? How could you not avenge your daughter?”

  “You may have heard but you still don’t understand. When I marched out to his shack, I knew that I was going to kill him. He was packed and ready to leave. And, yet, I proceeded, even though I’d sworn as a Knight not to take personal vengeance. I knew the law and that the Elders would judge me and banish me to The Pit. I knew all these things, but I didn’t care. I put my anger before you, Chase, and being a part of my own daughter’s life. In giving in to my anger, I failed you all.”

  “I’m tired, Elisa.”

  “I know.”

  With tears rolling down her face, Elisa walked over to Zi and pulled her up from the ground to embrace her inside of her cape. She held Zi for long moments. Then, Elisa began to glow brightly and Zi appeared to vanish within her.

  Elisa looked over her shoulder to see four giants step through the portal.

  She sighed, “Oh, no.”

  These four giants were the Four Pillars. They were some of the earliest predators in the universe. Believed to be indestructible, they were known for drinking the life out of every planet they visited. When Elisa saw them, she sent a telepathic message to all military personnel to abandon the island. Then, she flew towards the portal.

  Meanwhile, Ruth and Sarah confronted Matasis and Isadora in an icy plain. Many of the demons that were not outright destroyed by Sarah’s fire fall were driven back into the Omni Portal. Even those that persisted, like Matasis and Isadora, grew tired of their flesh burning and sought refuge. There was one small patch of ice beneath a small decaying building where the flaming snow did not fall. Matasis and Isadora hid there with other trapped demons.

  Matasis cried, “There is no need to continue this battle. The deed is done. So, why do you persist?”

  Engulfed in flames, Sarah smiled back, “Is it?”

  “Be gone, mortal. Your riddles bore me. Shortly, your world will be no more and I’ll be here to witness it,” Isadora ranted from the only patch of land on the island free from Sarah’s fire fall.

  Sarah simply smiled. She placed her hands on her hips and nodded at Ruth Ann. Ruth removed two rolled-up decrees from her waistband.

  Ruth read, “To the spirit currently known as Matasis, it has been declared by the Circle Knight Elders that you shall be imprisoned until the Day of Judgment.”

  Matasis smirked, “What? None of you has the power to bind me.”

  “So you say, but our daddy did.” Ruth replied.

  “And, does,” Sarah continued, “Buried beneath your feet is a box containing my our father’s Bible along with several other items he carried with him whenever he performed an exorcism. Though he may be gone in body, his spirit still remains in those cherished items and in us, his children. We are bound to our father by a love that is foreign to you and beyond your comprehension. The love that he had for us his children, made even more perfect because it was a love he chose, a love of sacrifice, which fills us with his spirit so that we might speak and act on his behalf even more so than when he was alive. Thus…”

  Then Ruth and Sarah spoke collectively as Ruth raised their father’s prayer box into the air, “In the name of the Holy One, we bind you Matasis to this case hidden from long ago, that you may be contained there in.”

  Matasis could feel the effects of their decree almost immediately.

  He cursed the sisters openly, “Damn you!”

  Matasis’ form became as vapor and he transitioned to the box sitting on the blue pillar Ruth had created. Matasis’s face now adorned the lid and sides of the box and his ghoulish screams could be heard across the frozen land.

  Ruth and Sarah turned to Isadora.

  Before they could utter a word, the Queen of the Dead exclaimed, “Hey, I’m out of here. I can sit on my throne and just wait for the dead to roll in when the dust settles.”

  Isadora vanished in a puff of smoke as she returned to Oblivion.

  “No, that heifer didn’t,” Ruth said.

  Sarah answered, “Yes, she did. So, we’re gonna need to go get her when we’re done here. That’s going to be a mess.”

  Feeling the ground tremble, the two sisters turned towards its source just moments before each heard Elisa’s voice in their consciousness. It was the Pillars and with each step they took the Earth shook.

  Evacuation helicopters rushed to the island from every direction, even as the giants marched into position. They were unstoppable. One faced the north, another south, another east and the other the west. The sisters scurried about trying to clear the area so that they could use their own gifts more fully.

  As they tried to impede the progress of the primeval forces visited upon the Earth, Matasis laughed, “Foolish, foolish mortals, it’s over. Save your breath and ready yourselves for death. Where are your Elders? Where is your God?”

  Hearing his words from some distance away, Cil said into the wind for those with an ear to hear, “For those who love life and others more than themselves, God is within.”

  Chase could not hear Cil. He continued to wonder. He had done all of this to draw out the Elders or The Almighty One to answer for what had so arbitrarily been taken away from him. Chase had no problem with the world ending for his world had ended over two hundred years ago. But, he couldn’t have it happen before he had his day. In the midst of the chaos, Chase saw an opportunity. It wasn’t what he hoped for, but it was likely his best chance. As three of the sisters and Elisa struggled against the Pillars, Chase approached Deborah as she rushed to join the others.

  Deborah drew her sword eager for a chance at redemption.

  Chase taunted, “So, what are you going to do with that against me? Send me one of your sisters.” He said this to provoke her

  Deborah could have created a thousand different images of herself and escaped to assist her sisters against the Pillars. But, an old shame burned within her. She couldn’t just walk away even though each of her sisters had asked her not to take Chase on. She told herself that by engaging Chase, she was helping her sisters’ focus on the Four Pillars.

  She took an on guard position and spoke sternly to the Saint Killer, “Come on, Chase. Let’s do this.”

  Chase removed his sword, “Well, if you insist.”

  Deborah and her ebony sword became invisible. Chase and she attempted a first strike against one another. There was difficulty in this battle for both sides. Chase was intangible most of the time solidifying only when impact was imminent for his blade or when his blade was inside of an opponent. Deborah was invisible and possessed an uncanny sixth sense. However, Chase had the advantage of his predictive abilities which was common knowledge among the knights. He had an ability of perception that was well b
eyond that of any of his opponents. He also held a secret that only he and some of his victims came to know of in their dying moments.

  Chase and Deborah parried back and forth in a close contest. Deborah made blind strikes and moves that even impressed Chase. Chase played the role of would be assassin although he had no intention of actually killing Deborah. But, he did draw blood on three separate thrusts. Chase raised the ante by knocking Deborah to the ground and grabbing her ponytail.

  He confessed, “Child, I could always see you on a plane you know nothing of.”

  A bruised and tattered Deborah became visible. Just as Chase pulled back his sword to cut her head off, a blur passed before of him pulling Deborah away. He was left with a handful of dark hair. It was Cil, the one who the Elders, God, and all the heavens loved so much. Chase could not have asked for more in his dark quest. This is how you defeat a superfast woman who can see the future. You limit her choices. With a bloodied Deborah laying behind her on the edge of a high bluff and the Four Pillars positioning themselves at the Geo-Magnetic North Pole to end the world, Cil had few choices. She needed to dispatch of Chase quickly but she also needed to protect her injured sister. The first condition placed a time constraint on her, the latter, a positional limitation. Chase believed those limitations plus his intangibility and predictive powers put him on even footing with Cil. His last trick would surely give him the undisputed advantage against Cil. Thus, he would kill a beloved of Heaven or he would force the Elders or the One they serve to intervene. Chase was assured a win.

  Chase proclaimed, “Cil, behold your death.”

  Chase played his final card which no living being had ever seen. The assassin became invisible and silent, reflecting neither light nor sound. This ability was, in part, how he had been such a successful assassin. He could come for his victims like a thief in the night. The intangible assassin could not walk the stars or from one age to the next like Akina, but what he could do was to unhinge himself ever so slightly from this dimension so that he might disappear from your left only to reappear to your right an instant later.

  Cil countered by closing her eyes. She closed them so that her eyes would not deceive her from a future she knew to be. Cil seemed to be performing some sort of shadow boxing for the martial arts against her invisible foe.

  As she countered his every blow Cil said, “The flesh that you see is not me, but rather I am the sum of the light that I have reflected back to the universe. Thus, no stroke of the sword can diminish who I am. But, what about you? Brother, consider as you fall to the snow below returning to us with your last breath.”

  Chase laughed, “The fanatic ‘till the end, eh Lucille?”

  The two of them had battled to a point where Cil was standing almost directly in front of the injured Deborah. Deborah stood and pulled back her bow, waiting for the moment when her intuition would tell her to fire her arrow so it would pierce Chase when he became tangible, but her fear for her sister’s life froze her in doubt. Deborah stood on the edge of the bluff like a statue as Cil battled in front of her. Cil trusted the vision she’d been given all those years before.

  Each parry and counter move was directed not by sight, but by what she knew to be true. Their blows were furious as each rushed to what would be. Sarah could see the battle from her position out of the corner of her eye. She knew that Chase was the toughest of opponents, but she’d never seen Cil lose a battle. No one had. Therefore, the next few moments were utterly surreal. In lightening quickness, Cil leaned to her right in front of Deborah and then an instant later, redness appeared on Cil’s white top.

  An angry and teary Chase made himself visible again and tangible enough to put his raised foot against Cil to push her off of his blade and over the bluff, as he called out, “May the heavens take note of this day.”

  Deborah fell to her knees and screamed, “No!”She stretched out her hand to where Cil had been standing.

  In an instant, light flashed behind Chase and Cil reappeared, unharmed, and with the Ebony blade in her hand. She drove the blade into Chase’s back.

  Chase gasped and looked back in confusion as he fell over the bluff into the snow drift below. Chase cried out to heaven as he fell.

  Matasis, who had been watching these events at a distance from his prison, was struck with a realization.

  He exclaimed “She is the Dream Box!”

  Indeed, she was.

  Cil reached down to Deborah and pulled her to her feet.

  “Lord, in Heaven!” Sarah cried.

  For two full breaths, Elisa floated frozen high above the scene. In the third breath, she called to her grandchildren in a halting voice, “Here, girls, we need to deal with this now.”

  Elisa looked at each of her babies. Her eyes glistened and she forced a smile as she fought to keep her composure.

  “Okay, ladies, do we turn Sarah loose on these four giant guys and see what happens?”

  Ruth shook her head, “I don’t know that I can contain that that kind of energy. If even a tenth of that energy gets past me, all life on earth will be destroyed.”

  Sarah nodded in agreement, “We have got to have a better option than that.”

  Elisa replied back, “There may be another way. I don’t know if you ladies truly understand who you are and what your role is in this life—one to lead, one to create, one to destroy and one to protect. There is nothing that you cannot do together if each of you will give yourselves fully over to your purpose. But you must be willing to sacrifice to become who you were meant to be.”

  Each of the four giants opened their own unique orifice to consume the energies of the Earth. Light emanated from them. The four sisters joined hands on the snowy ground in the middle of the four giants. They let go of all earthly concerns, even for their own lives, and allowed the power that had been given to them to flow freely. They trusted the spirit within. The sisters began to glow and a pillar of light rose from their circle to the heavens above. For the briefest of moments, these four orphaned girls took on their true inheritance. They glowed brightly and time seemed to stop as the beam of light arced from them into the sky above. It was as though the world began to revolve around that beam of light, faster and faster. First, the snow and dust around the sisters began to twirl. Then, the whirlwind expanded. It grew wider and wider until it began to engulf the four stone pillars. As the light and wind reached the four ancient creatures, their stony flesh crumbled to dust and swirled in the whirlwind as well. For billions of years they’d roamed the universe consuming heavenly bodies. On this day they returned to dust.

  The sisters gave each other a hug then quickly turned their attention to the Omni Portal. Ruth had tried to block it. Since it was an inter-dimensional portal, her barrier against the face of the portal was not very effective. Sarah’s firestorm was largely effective against the demons, but was ineffective against the portal itself.

  Deborah, still in a good deal of pain asked, “Can we do what we just did to get rid of this thing, too?”

  Elisa smiled and said to them as she levitated once more, “No, that only works against living things.”

  “So, how do we destroy the portal?” Ruth asked.

  “We don’t. That was never the plan,” Elisa replied, “If we do that, in a hundred years some other demon will rebuild it. See, this portal and its various entry points all lead to the same place. So will any new such portals. It is the unholy grail of universal and inter-dimensional travel. All Omni Portals, past present and future, are forever linked across time and space. In that dilemma, is an opportunity.”

  Elisa approached the top of the Omni Portal.

  Sarah became distraught, “Grandma Elisa, what are you doing?”

  Elisa motioned to Sarah and the others, “No, stay there. This is something only I can do.”

  Elisa said to her granddaughters, “It’s alright. Really, it is. If I remain, they’ll hunt for me without ceasing until the true End of Days. Besides, this way I take m
y last secret with me.”

  Atop the portal, the wind rippled Elisa’s black cape. Her arms, now bare, revealed the self-inflicted scars collected since she first entered The Pit. The marks revealed how she had hurt herself over the years so that she might channel her anger and remember her humanity and not hurt others.

  Elisa looked to heaven and made her final petition, “Lord, I know I’ve let you down before, many, many times. But if you will but restore to me, here today, the power of my youth, which you gave to me, I will follow after you Lord, with all that I am.”

  Elisa stretched out her hand towards the sea behind the portal. The water began to swirl slowly. Soon, it became a whirlpool. As the waters swirled faster and faster, the waters rose up from the sea bed and arched towards the Omni Portal like a cyclone spawned from the ocean. As the sea rose up to meet the giant portal, several beams of sunlight cut through the cloudy sky to shine on Elisa one last time. Those last rays of light brought a peace to Elisa’s face that she’d not known in three hundred years.

  As the spinning sea drew near the portal and Elisa, the sisters could see that she was not only raising the sea, but that she was also holding back the effects of her destination from our world. Everything that was pulled into Elisa’s watery portal disappeared from sight once it crossed the event horizon of the portal. She had created a window to a black hole, but held back its full fury balancing it on the edge of the point of no return.

  Darkness crept over half the sky as Elisa’s water passageway moved over the Omni Portal. What wasn’t blotted out by the proceeding darkness was warped in appearance. Any light that fell upon Elisa’s creation, bent and fractured under the pull of gravity, succumbed until the darkness eclipsed the Omni Portal and Elisa herself. Their images elongated as they were consumed. Finally, the darkness lifted and the tower of water retreated into the sea.

  It is widely believed that to be consumed by a black hole is to be torn apart. Elisa, despite her power, would be subject to this same fate. For several long moments, the sisters stood in silence.

  After giving her sisters a comforting hug, Cil said, “Come on. Let’s finish up. Call Mavis over to see about Deborah.”

  Sarah turned off the fireworks. At that moment, she so wanted to revert fully to human so she might cry and feel the snow on her face, but there was still work to be done. Such was the price of her gift and her glorified state.

  As the four sisters went about the business of ridding the island of any remaining demons and monsters, Ruth came upon Big Mike kneeling in the snow in front of a stone statue. Ruth was puzzled at first. She walked around towards the front of the stone object and covered her mouth in horror. Gabby had been turned to stone by Isadora’s sorcery. Ruth immediately ran to the stone statue and embraced it screaming for Gabby to awaken. She collapsed into the snow alongside Big Mike and wept.

  Ruth stood up and stared up into the heavens, calling “Lord, Lord…Please.”

  Ruth stumbled around in the snow and her pleas became shouts as she screamed into the sky above. Sarah, who had taken to the air searching for stray combatants, landed beside her sister. Sarah embraced her. She simply held her until Ruth’s wailing subsided.

  When she calmed down, Ruth wrapped Gabriella in a blue shell and carried her with Big Mike back to the staging area where the sisters first landed. There, she and Sarah found Cil, and Deborah. Upon seeing Gabriella, the two older sisters gasped. The four of them consoled each other and Big Mike as best they could.

  Moments later they were interrupted by armed services personnel wanting to debrief. A tearful Cil explained to the officers that she and her sisters still had one more task. The sisters had a warrant to capture Isadora and a decree to intern her permanently. The problem with executing either was that Isadora had escaped back to her own realm. Since time does not flow evenly between her world and ours, Isadora had what would equate to weeks to prepare for the sisters arrival. She knew they’d come after her.

  For Ruth, Gabriella’s death and the pursuit of her killer was transformative. It was as if Gabriella was her alter ego who could be strong when she couldn’t. With Gabriella gone, Ruth took on the mantle that Gabriella had tried all those years to place on her. She stood in silence waiting for Cil to open a portal from which they could enter Isadora’s kingdom. Ruth’s face displayed absolute resolve that had not been seen before.

  As Cil twirled her staff to open the dimensional doorway, the communications officer asked Cil, “Ms. Johnson, the admiral wants to know what you intend to do about this dragon sitting on his flight deck?”

  Cil, looking back over her shoulder, answered quickly, “Tell him, that we’ll take care of it as soon as we get back.”

  The portal opened and the sisters stepped through it. The glowing rip in time and space disappeared. The handful of service men standing there looked at each other in quiet bewilderment wondering what to do next.