Psychoverse

by Jamie Hawke

  “And be prepared to fight,” I said.

  Cheri smiled wide, let out a little squeal of excitement, and took off running.

  “Three-two-one-go,” I spat out in a mock countdown, already starting after her. “Keep up!”

  Erupa laughed, already catching up with me, her long, muscular legs taking her quickly over the rocky terrain. Glancing back, she shouted, “Incoming!” before throwing her hands up and creating a shadow shield.

  Badass.

  We sprinted down the decline, approaching the plains below as the ice monster stormed down at us, and had just made it to the flatlands when two wind colossuses rose in our path, throwing embers and loose grass our way.

  Erupa tried a second shadow shield but it didn’t work. My guess was the ice monster was connected to the shadows so her shield had worked against it, but debris didn’t count and maybe the wind ones weren’t connected. Attacking them directly, though, was something we could try. I had learned to focus my attack on them with the one back in the Hermite cave, so here I did the same, latching to the stones and pushing back.

  To my surprise, doing so caused the glow from the stones on Cheri and Erupa to dim. Apparently, the power I used here was all connected, and diverting it caused weakening in certain areas.

  “Use the shadows,” I told Erupa, “in whatever way you can. They seem to work against this thing.”

  “On it,” she replied, and grinned. “Latest level up brought me something cool I’ve been waiting to try. Watch.”

  Face lighting up like she was playing with a new toy on her birthday, she activated something on her screen and then thrust her hands out at the ice monster. At first it looked like nothing happened, then the monster reeled and shuddered, and I was able to make out faint shadows passing through it like little projectiles.

  “Nice work,” I said, and then did what I could to weaken the beast further. Cheri was running around it, whooping and shooting, laughing as the thing fell to one ‘knee.’ She chopped off a block of ice that was one of its hands, and the thing shattered at her feet so that she was able to jump on the spot and slide like she was having the time of her life.

  Meanwhile, I pulled at the stone to trap it in place, then shouted, “All you’ve got, now!”

  Erupa grunted with effort but a large shadow strike hit and I pulled, at once. A shattering noise crackled through the air and then the ice exploded. The stone whipped over, at first seeming like it was going to strike as a projectile. But when I held out my hand, the stone flew right to it like a magnet. A jolt of energy ran through my hand, and I felt the stone as though it was part of me. We had, I guessed, bonded.

  “Holy shit,” Cheri said, jogging over and smiling enthusiastically. “That just happened!”

  A roar of anger carried across the wind, registering as distant. It hit me why I could hear the sound—this stone was connected to the wind, and now I was sensing the winds more, picking up on them, even able to see their patterns, somewhat.

  It was as if my empath powers allowed me, through the stone, to feel the wind, much as it had first done with the gold stone and other energies. I started to understand why I, as an empath, would be especially well-suited for this job. Why Hadrian had chosen me.

  A grunt sounded and I turned to see Erupa there, shadow shield over us, shaking her head. “You done staring at that rock, or should I try and hold this guy off even longer?”

  “Allow me,” I said on a whim, and threw the rock out toward the ice monster. As I had suspected, wind gathered around the rock, swirling until it had formed a wind colossus—only, mine was about a third the size of the one I had taken the stone from. Likely related to my experience with the stones.

  The colossus hesitated until I willed it to attack, then it charged out toward the ice monster, the two clashing in a blizzard and gales of wind.

  “Hot fuckity!” Cheri proclaimed, pumping her sword in the air and about to charge over to join the fray.

  “Wrong way,” Erupa chided her, running on in the direction we had been going.

  I started to follow, then realized there was the second wind colossus there, too, starting to pick up more wind as it moved my way. With a grin, I reached out for it as I ran in its direction. A force resisted, at first, but then gave way with a shudder that resonated back in the direction of the mound we were charging toward.

  Something or someone was in there, and I couldn’t wait to learn more. In the meantime, the second stone shot to my hand. I clutched it tight, feeling elated as a gust of wind gave me an extra push, throwing me forward and past my ladies. They both watched me with wide eyes. Suddenly, Erupa looked even more blue, if that was possible, while flames shot out from Cheri as she ran.

  “You’re giving us some sort of elemental powers,” Erupa called, and I looked back to see ice in her trail.

  “Not me, the stones.”

  “You via the stones, I imagine.”

  I noticed that the ice monster behind us had just gotten hold of the stone in the center of my wind colossus, and my pet vanished. When I tried pulling for the stone, nothing happened. It had been defeated, I realized, and belonged to the enemy.

  Cursing under my breath, I held onto this latest stone, pocketing it in one of my tactical pockets on my vest.

  We were nearing the dome before another blast of ice and cold struck, this time hitting the ground and cracking it, going around the edge of Erupa’s shields. One tactic could only work so long. We started to slip, but it was worse than that. The ground started splitting and shaking, and jagged ice shot up like spears.

  Cheri shot past me, melting patches with the flame effect and cutting through ice-spears with her sword. As soon as the ice melted, the ground in that spot was unable to move or crack or form any sort of attack. If an area of the ice was cut off from the rest, it became static.

  Debating my options, I had a thought. What I couldn’t do here was activate the latest stone and lose it to that ice bastard, but that would only happen if it got hold of it. Since we were going in the opposite direction, I was pretty sure my plan would work.

  “Hang tight,” I called out, willing the stone out ahead of us.

  Indeed, it burst out from my pocket, wind taking hold, and started to form a colossus. That wasn’t my goal, though, so I put my focus on it and jumped. The wind lifted me and the colossus caught hold of my ladies, giving them the same boost so that we were all up and flying through the air.

  “Shield!” I shouted to Erupa, who complied. That had the extra benefit I had hoped for—as the ice monster shot out attacks and hit her shield, we were propelled even faster as the force hit it and pressed into the wind that was semi-solid. Maybe shadows pushing wind didn’t follow Earth’s or even most of Oram’s physics, but this plane didn’t fucking care.

  We all landed in a run, out of range from the ice monster, I hoped, and made for the mound as I pulled the stone back to myself.

  “So fucking hot,” Cheri said, and I grinned, only to realize the flames were intensifying around her and she had been referring to the fire, not me and my cool new abilities as I had assumed.

  “Give me the stone,” I said, about to reach out and pull her stone to me.

  “No!” She stopped running, turning back toward the ice monster, and grinned. “I’ve gotta try this.”

  I skidded to a stop, so close to the glowing mound, and realized what she was about to do.

  “Don’t!” I shouted.

  “We’re here, we ain’t got shit to do but fight this thing.” She gave me a wink. “I gotta try!”

  Charging back toward the monster, she laughed, sheathing her sword and basically going flame on. I stood at the ready, prepared to pull the stone from her if she started screaming about being burned alive. Her laughter, though, put me at ease despite Erupa cursing to my left.

  “Stop her!” Erupa pleaded, watching in horror.

  “I…” Can’t wasn’t the right word, but what else could I say? “Believe in her,” is what
I ended up going with, and hoped she would prove me right.

  “Fucking nuts, both of you.”

  I nodded but shrugged. “We do what we gotta do to survive.”

  “Shut up.”

  We both did, because then Cheri reached the ice monster, bursting forward in a fiery blast. The ice monster was ready though, all but deforming as its shape shifted around the flames, coming up behind her to throw a blast of icy cold her way. The effect was to douse the flames, causing steam to rise and Cheri to stumble away, back to the monster.

  In a gut reaction, I drew my pistol and shot.

  Crack.

  My level increased to nine, as shown on my screen—which I was glad to see worked here. Stats soared and I remembered my ability to heal, but it wasn’t necessary. My battle was over.

  The glow of the stone left as first the monster fell apart, then the two halves of the stone clattered to the ground. It had been distracted, energy drained, and I had moved at the exact right moment.

  “Aghhhh!” a shout of anguish came from the mound. I turned to see that, now being close enough to make it out, the mound was a curved rock with an opening in it leading down. Scanning it, I found an energy that connected to others. Much like I had been able to sense the monks’ various travel ports, here I could tell there were more of these places scattered throughout.

  “Show yourself,” I said, pistol drawn and standing at the entrance. When no answer came, I took a step in, checked to see that it was clear, and then waited until Cheri had caught up and joined me with Erupa. “You two wait here, I’ll make sure it’s safe.”

  “Fuck that,” Cheri replied. “After you stole my kill back there?”

  “Stole your…?” I chuckled, shaking my head, and entered. As I did, I heard Cheri arguing with Erupa that she had the ice monster, if only I hadn’t intervened.

  “He always does that,” Erupa replied. “Ezra has to have the kill, as if doing so will show off his…”

  Their voices faded, as I walked farther in, and a good thing to. I didn’t need this, not when I knew for a fact that most of my kills were only taken when others were at risk. To say that I was showing off… Well, then again, they hadn’t said ‘compensating,’ at least. I didn’t need to overhear anything like that.

  My steps led me into a room that was clearly dark, but my connection to the gold stone caused me to see glowing gold lines following the flow of energy. I turned into the full room, what was clearly a cavern, and saw something that I had in no way expected.

  There, seated as if half on a throne of stone but half consumed by it was the bloodied, nearly lifeless form of the bounty hunter Maji.

  20

  “You…?” I demanded, taking another step to ensure that I wasn’t imagining the sight.

  “Me.” The reply hadn’t come from Maji’s mouth. Instead, Maji’s body convulsed and a draw of blood went from him into the stones, splattering them, then seeping into them. “But I couldn’t hope you would understand. You, who shattered a precious core stone.”

  The wall shuddered, then moved out, and then, more of the wall started to shift. Soon, it became clear that it wasn’t a wall that had Maji, but a being that was part of the wall, or made of stone, anyway. It emerged slowly from the wall, large, huge muscles in there—so massive, it was overbearing.

  Somewhere inside there was a man, rock coating his body so that it formed some sort of golem or stone colossus around him. His skin, where there was skin, grew right into the stone. The face was his, but his eyes were black with silver in the middle to match the silver glow around his chest—likely a core stone, although covered mostly by rock armor.

  Those horrible, piercing eyes stared at me, then he laughed. “I’ve come to understand much of you while feeding on this man, Ezra Faldron.”

  “You don’t know shit.”

  “I know you…” Another surge from Maji, eyes rolling up into his head. “That you were once one of the best. That until quite recently, you made so-called criminals shake in their boots. And yet, here you are, having sold out to the other side for some… how did his mind translate it? Ah, yes… for some pussy.”

  “Fuck you,” I said, drawing and firing. The shot ricocheted off him and landed in what remained of Maji’s shoulder. I groaned in sympathy but to be honest, he was so far gone that it barely registered in Maji’s already terrorized expression.

  “Ezra Faldron,” the stone being said, as if let down. “Is it ever so simple?”

  “Sometimes,” I admitted.

  “Well, not today.” He rose up, taking up most of the chamber, black eyes on me. “Is it true that you trained at the Temple of Domrem?”

  “Trained, and returned,” I replied.

  “In that case, you might know my friends.” A ripple of energy went out from the stone monster, followed by walls moving, shifting to open up new passageways. Gusts of wind nearly sent me flying back, but I knelt, sticking to my position until one form entered from my left, another from my right. One was a wind colossus that, like the stone figure, had a figure within it—this one a woman. The other was a man in water that surged around him, constantly flowing but sticking to a humanoid shape.

  Both looked down on me and I cocked my head, realizing that I knew them. Not from ever meeting in person, but from the walls of the temple. Old paintings of great Grand Masters. But one… a much older version of the essence-based guide who had led me in the trial to obtain the core stones.

  “Supreme Master Krigo,” I said, voice barely audible over the rushing sound of wind and water coming from the newcomers. As I looked at them again, more followed behind them, though these were not being by operated or holding people, but simple golems. “You left the temple for this?”

  “We formed the temple for this,” Krigo replied. “Before going to your dimension and finding your people to train, we fought in the old wars, and lost much. We rebuilt ourselves, starting at the core, and trained others to one day follow in our path. Humans, it would turn out, even when you gained powers, were not worthy.”

  “Most were not,” the woman in the wind colossus said, voice rich with passion and excitement. “You, however, have passed the tests, have claimed the core stone. You, Ezra Faldron, are worthy of joining us. Of ruling your people with our power at your back.”

  That caught me off guard. I pushed myself up, eyed these strange figures and their armies of followers behind them, and tried to understand what they were offering me.

  “And if we worked together,” I said, “where would that take us? Would your power push back the supervillains in Oram, help establish order?”

  Krigo’s laugh reverberated through the floor. “This is so much larger than Oram, child. So much more than the Citadel or Earth or any of that. We are talking about letting you be part of the journey that will lead us all to a new way of life, a universe where suffering and pain is a thing of the past. Where we guide humanity and others alike to live in harmony.”

  “At what cost?” My hands clenched into fists as I sensed Krigo’s malicious nature. “Because where I come from, all of that sounds wonderful as long as no innocents are hurt in the process.”

  “To cultivate a proper bush of roses, one must prune. I believe, anyway. You understand.”

  I shook my head. “I understand that I’ve made my decision. That I stand with the Citadel, and if you’re telling me you stand against them, then we stand on opposite sides of this war.”

  “Hadrian is a fool! Always has been!”

  The woman laughed, the man in the water joining in, as both moved closer.

  “We have our answer,” the woman said, laughter cutting off. “He’s one of them, don’t you see? Merely one more insect for us to crush before moving on to his universe of insects.”

  “No more wasting time on this one,” Krigo agreed, voice taking on a hard sorrow. “It is a shame, Ezra, that it had to come to this. I give you one last chance to join us.”

  “Not on your life,” I replied.


  A rumbling of stone, the slight nod from the man, and then the others surged on me. Fuck, I was in for it here, but had a trick or two up my sleeve yet. Or… in my pocket, as the case was. My preference would have been to not use it, that they wouldn’t defeat my little wind colossus and take my new pet, but the risk of not using it was worse. Sending the stone out, I charged back toward the way I had come in, only to find it closed! Wind spun as my colossus formed and surged at the water guy, and I busted out my arc baton while attempting to use my gold stone as I had before, mentally attacking the others and even Krigo.

  Every attack I threw out was rebuffed, but at least the colossal monsters couldn’t land any blows on me, yet. Between attacks, I managed to send a push toward Cheri and Erupa, to let them know I was in trouble. Either they would feel it, or Cheri’s voices would let her know. I hoped they would find a way through.

  Or maybe it was best if they didn’t, considering the chaos down here. Except that, without me, they didn’t have any hope of returning to Theramuse or anywhere in our dimension. As if in answer, their emotions registered as panic and determination at once, and I had no doubt they were on the other side of that wall trying to find a way through.

  Diving out of the way of a massive stone fist and then running around a corner and sliding to avoid part of the wall closing in, I pushed back and found that I was able to send the stones back the way they had come. It was all connected in the way I had felt the connection with the monks’ travel points, and now this Krigo fuck and I were battling over some mental connection.

  I charged through the passage only to be met by an assault from wind and water, although each time the attacks came I pushed back and stone rose to block the enemy. A tingling registered and I realized it was my wind stone out there, still not captured somehow! The little guy had heart—or was made stronger by its connection to me, perhaps, but I preferred the ‘heart’ explanation.

  Pulling it toward me, I was relieved to see it flying over and into my hand. I thrust at the heart of a water colossus with my arc baton and the electricity sent the water flying back. When I cast out my wind colossus and activated it, I moved past this falling water stone and snatched it up, the tingling of its bond telling me I had a new second pet.