"I don't agree," Joss said. "Cephus has had months to prepare for every situation. Another day won't significantly alter his defenses."
"On matters of strategy, I have rarely found Elyssa to be wrong," Lanaeia said. "She is as brilliant as her father."
Elyssa's cheeks blushed.
I agreed with Elyssa, but also saw the need to prepare our own meager forces. They'd be the ones off balance if we called them back in and suddenly thrust them into action. "I think a delay would be best."
Elyssa pursed her lips and gave me a displeased look. A shrug broke the tension. "I hope you're right."
Flava turned to Nailan. "Send your scouts and recall everyone. Fill the crucibles and we'll decide which areas to target."
He nodded. "At once." Nailan gathered several seraphs and departed.
Elyssa studied the map. "Is there a chance we could get an updated view?"
"With the aether flow cut off to most of the city, the map can't gather updated information," Flava said. "It captured the destruction around the Ministry of Defense, but not the other crystoids."
I glanced at the rocket stick. "Maybe I could do some scouting from the air."
"Alone?" Elyssa shook her head. "Out of everyone here, we can't afford to lose you. I'll go."
I gripped her hand. "I don't think so."
"Using the rocket stick means we might lose it, and that's the only way you can deliver an airborne crucible," Elyssa said.
"Nailan and his scouts already know the new face of the city," Flava said. "I will use their intel to show you which sections of the city are leveled, but it will take some time."
Elyssa breathed a sigh. "Sounds good. We should get started."
My stomach rumbled. It was well past noon and we hadn't eaten. "Got any food around here? Maybe some angel food cake, or deviled eggs?"
Flava didn't seem to get the humor and shook her head. "No, but we have panari and glurk."
I wrinkled my nose at the unappetizing name of the latter. "Uh, is it good?"
"Of course." She turned to Joss. "Would you show him to the dining hall?"
"My pleasure," Joss said.
"Can you bring me back something?" Elyssa asked me. "I'm going to stay here with Flava."
"I'll bring you a heaping plate of glurk," I promised her.
She arched an eyebrow. "Sounds delish."
Joss took me to the dining hall—a long cavern with a wooden table and brought out platters of fruit. It turned out I'd sampled glurk and panari on my last visit. Glurk, dense as peanut butter, resembled a tomato and had a nutty flavor like almonds. Panari, a sweet crunchy bread, pleasantly enhanced the glurk. I munched cruna, a purple pear-shaped fruit with the texture and taste of a sweetened avocado, and drank a thick green liquid called Guanabana.
"I like glurk," I admitted to Joss as he nibbled on quintos, olive-shaped vegetables with a sour bite.
"Glurk sits heavy in my stomach," the seraph admitted. "I don't care for it."
Otaleon joined us and sat next to Joss. "I am sorry if I seemed angry with you earlier, Justin. The war lies heavy on our hearts, but you bore a greater burden than most. If I had been in your position, I would not have been eager to embark another war."
I felt my shoulders sag at all the war had cost everyone, and the high price my reticence had exacted from one of my dearest friends. A tear gathered in my eye. "I ran away because I wanted to escape another war. Because of me, Nightliss is dead."
Joss put his hand over mine. "We are all immensely saddened, brother. Please, tell us how it happened."
Lanaeia appeared at the door. "I would also like to hear."
I wound back time to the tidal wave sweeping over the island where Elyssa and I were vacationing and how it was the slap in the face that brought me back to reality. I told them how the crystoids exploded violently when improperly destroyed and how they turned anyone who touched them into an insane malaether zombie.
"One of our scouts witnessed prisoners forced to touch a crystoid," Joss said. "We believe it was one of Cephus's sick experiments."
"I touched one by accident," I admitted. "Thankfully, I was able to channel the energy out of me and avoid any lasting harm." I'd blown a huge hole through a hill in North Dakota as a result.
"I did not realize Nightliss was so reticent to return to the war as well," Otaleon said. "You said she was conflicted about the death of her sister, Daelissa."
"She vanished, leaving the Templars and everyone else behind," I said. "It helped me rationalize my own departure."
"Nightliss was the Templar Clarion," Joss said, eyes troubled. "How could she simply leave?"
"Everyone has their breaking point," I said. "Even someone who has been around for thousands of years. Moses—the man you knew as Jeremiah Conroy—broke when Daelissa killed his wife Thesha. Revenge consumed him for millennia, and in the end, Daelissa killed him."
"I do not blame Nightliss," Joss said. "Had I not been turned into a husk in the final battle of the First Seraphim War, I likely would have run away as well."
Otaleon chuckled. "Who knew we would spend our next thousand years in the dark? Or that the dragons would eventually restore us?"
"Technically, you weren't restored by dragons," I said. "You can thank Daelissa for reviving you."
Otaleon smiled. "True."
"Daelissa revived me," Lanaeia said in a quiet voice, "but I would rather have remained a husk than serve such a cruel mistress." She wiped away sudden tears. "I'm sorry, Justin. Please continue your tale."
I moved on to our discovery that Stasis nullified the crystal meteors, but soon after we began neutralizing them, Frankenberg, a former chancellor at Science Academy protected crystoids with airship fortresses armed with lasers and battle bots.
"Once we realized Frankenberg was sending a fleet of airships to guard the crystoid in the Three Sisters, we found his secret base hidden in Antarctica and fought his army of megabots, airships and battle bots." I swallowed the knot forming in my throat as the most painful part of the story arrived. "We defeated his army and destroyed the control room in his base before he could escape, but a nuclear device was armed and we had only minutes to react."
"Nuclear?" Joss asked.
"The explosion would have wiped out everything for miles, and our entire army was within range," I explained. "Nightliss took an escape pod with the bomb. It flew into the stratosphere. She ejected, but the shockwave severely injured her." No matter how deep my breaths, I couldn't ease the knot of agony in my chest.
"She sacrificed herself for those she loved," Joss said, eyes glistening. "She gave the greatest gift she could."
"Her life for thousands," Otaleon finished. He squeezed his hands together. "You should celebrate her sacrifice, not mourn it, Justin. Nightliss would not want you to carry around such pain."
I tried to respond, but sobs choked my voice. I tried to think of something innocuous, like baseball. Instead, images of the small black cat I'd rescued from a rabid dog played back in my mind. That cat had eventually revealed itself to be a Seraphim in disguise—Nightliss. We'd been through so much together.
Tears rolled down Lanaeia's cheeks. "She was the best of us."
I nodded. "The hardest part is believing that she's really gone." I broke the dam of sorrow in my throat. "Anyway, we cleaned up the mess and neutralized all but one crystoid. Since the aether beam creates a sky portal leading to Cephus's fortress, we knew it would be the best way to get here."
"Agreed," Joss replied. "The other Alabaster Arches lead to Brightling controlled territory."
"Pjurna is hard to reach from other continents even in the best of times," Otaleon said. "Tell me, Justin, how did Cephus manage to create portals from Eden to Seraphina without use of an Alabaster Arch?"
"Our people are still scratching their heads about that one," I said. "Frankenberg said Serena was involved, a split instant before a demon-possessed man tore him to shreds."
"Why would a demon kill him?" Joss asked. "There are so many parts of this that don't make sense."
"I agree." Out of everything, that demon's actions had confused me the most. "As for the portal, Elyssa and I noticed an arch inside Cephus's fortress when we first arrived. I'm almost certain it has something to do with the sky portals."
"Serena also knows a great deal about portals and arches," Lanaeia said. "I once heard her talking to Daelissa about creating an arch that could open to all realms and all locations in case the Grand Nexus could not be restored."
"How do you think the crystoids were formed?" Joss asked. "What is to prevent Cephus from creating more?"
I shivered at the thought of him launching more into Eden. "It must not have been easy or I think he would've launched another attack by now. It's vital we stop him from any more shenanigans."
The others stared at me blankly.
"Before he causes more trouble," I clarified.
"Ah," they said simultaneously.
Now that I'd told my story, I wanted hear theirs. "Can you fill in the blanks about what happened after the last time I saw you?"
Otaleon took poured himself a glass of Guanabana and sipped it. "As you remember, Ketiss urged Commander Borathen to attack Cephus immediately so Tarissa could be secured."
"The commander thought it was more important to get the Overworld Conclave back in order first," I said. "He didn't want to leave behind an unstable government."
"Ketiss agreed and determined the Tarissan Legion could defeat Cephus." Otaleon sighed. "I had faith in his assessment, as did anyone else you might have asked before deployment. Many other reborn Seraphim, including the three of us, joined his quest."
"Despite my reluctance to fight another war," I said, "I truly thought the legion would have no problems."
Lanaeia looked at the floor. "Fresh from victory over Daelissa's mighty army, we thought we would crush him quickly."
"We arrived on Kdosh and took the skyway to Tarissa," Otaleon continued. "The shield around the Ministry of Research was impenetrable to our attacks. Cephus sent representatives to meet with Ketiss and urged diplomacy. Eager to avoid more bloodshed, Ketiss agreed to talks. What we did not realize was that this was merely a delaying tactic."
Joss bared his teeth. "Cephus is a vile trickster, Justin. Kill him when you have the chance."
Otaleon turned to his companion. "Can I finish now?"
"You always tell the stories," Joss said. "I'd like to finish this one."
The other seraph chuckled and sipped his drink. "Of course."
Joss looked surprised, but wasted no time continuing the story. "Cephus agreed to sign a treaty handing all power over to the Tarissan Legion so long as he was given a fair trial with no possibility of a death sentence."
"He told Ketiss he'd hand himself over?" I shook my head. "Sounds way too easy."
"Cephus asked for a formal arrest by Ketiss with the legion present." Joss clenched a fist. "It was a ruse to gather everyone in one place. Those of us who were not formally part of the legion were not present, while others were assigned patrols in the north and south."
Dread rose in my stomach as I realized where this was going. "And then?"
"Cephus came outside the ministry with a contingent of guards and stood just on the other side of the shield. Survivors said streaks of light shot straight up from the Ministry of Research and vanished in the sky." Joss crushed a piece of fruit he held. "While Cephus watched, the first crystal meteor smashed into the center of the legion, killing nearly everyone present."
I felt sick to my stomach. "That sick son of a bitch."
"He is no one to be trifled with," Joss said. "Though I trust your fighting abilities, I think we should be very cautious and not underestimate Cephus's cleverness."
"I witnessed his cleverness firsthand the last time I was here," I said. "He brought the other members of the Trivectus to meet me and convinced me to manifest my demon side to prove who I was. They panicked and called their guards. I, of course, defended myself. By the time it was over, I thought I'd killed the other two members of the Trivectus."
"I remember the story," Otaleon said. "In truth, Cephus had them killed during the melee."
"Yeah." My throat felt dry so I gulped some Guanabana. "I'm done underestimating this bastard."
God, I hoped I was right.
Chapter 5
It was well past dark when most members of the resistance were present and accounted for. The scouts updated the map with current geographical information, revealing a city pockmarked with destruction. The crystoids had leveled several city blocks at the eastern and western impact zones. The crystoid used to destroy the Tarissan Legion was gone, probably neutralized by Cephus after it served its murderous purpose.
Elyssa updated her plan with the help of Nailan and his scouts, marking areas around the western front for the explosive crucibles. Her Cyrinthian was proficient enough that I didn't have to translate much.
"The southern approach to the target is heavily patrolled," one of the scouts said. "Even if the diversion draws away most of their troops, it would be best to circle north."
"Why is the southern perimeter guarded so well?" Elyssa asked.
Nailan answered, "They know we are based in the south, but not precisely enough to find us." He looked around. "Have we still no word on Tryphiss?"
Philas shook his head. "She is still missing, sir."
"Three days," another scout said sadly. "I think she was captured or worse."
Nailan turned to Elyssa. "Tryphiss was our northern scout and would have more details about skirting the southern patrols."
"If Cephus continues producing troops at his current rate, we'll have no place left to hide." Otaleon's lips curled back with distaste. "Soon the entire city will be patrolled from the air."
"I have seen the internment camp inside the shield," another scout said. "Cephus captures nearly a hundred refugees a day, and the holding pen is packed with our people."
"How many soldiers guard each crystoid?" Elyssa asked. "Break it down into ground and air forces."