"We will not let you go," Flava said as Murk crystals smashed against the rubble outside our shelter and pelted us. "There must be another way."
"Then tell me what it is." I gripped the rocket stick. "Once I have aether, I can channel a shield. I'll be fine." I hoped I could live up to that boast since my insides felt like boiled spaghetti.
Shouts rose from outside and two fliers plummeted to the ground. The attacks on our position ceased. I peered outside and saw the rest of our small army equipped with the confiscated aether packs. While some of them shielded against the airborne attackers, others fired volleys of Murk at the fliers.
"Get up the hill to that shield!" I shouted as I boarded the rocket stick.
"Where are you going?" Elyssa said.
I showed her my teeth. "To finish off that blight."
Her lips flattened into a line. "We'll cover you."
"Love you." I gave her a kiss and took off.
"Up the hill!" Elyssa shouted, and led the charge to safety while the remnants of the Tarissan Legion fought to protect them.
I had one more shot at this thing. If I failed, we were done for.
Chapter 8
I flew up and into the aether beam still emitting from the core of the crystoid. Like flying from a cold dark cave and into a beam of warm sunlight, energy flooded my body, but was I too weakened to handle it? The fliers were currently too occupied with fighting the ground forces to spare a moment for me, so I spun to face the crystoid. Locking my legs around the rocket stick, I drew upon the primal forces of destruction and creation and threaded them into Stasis. When the sphere of gray grew as large as my torso, I willed it toward the glowing core.
The reaction jerked me down so hard I flipped upside down on the rocket stick, clinging by the backs of my knees for dear life. Despite the precarious situation, I didn't dare stop channeling, pouring everything I had into the infernal meteor below.
Something stuck my back, but the Nightingale armor held. Another attack slammed my leg and I nearly lost my grip on the rocket stick, but I couldn't look away, couldn't lose my concentration. A flier silently fell, and then another. Brilliance sizzled past me as another flier swooped in. A beam of Murk intercepted him before he took another shot.
My legs began to slip and the rocket stick sagged from the strain of holding me aloft. Slowly, it sank toward the pit. The crystoid seemed to suck up everything I had. I heard Elyssa shouting my name, but I couldn't spare even a split second of attention for anything else.
I have to finish this!
I tried to summon more power, but my floodgates were already wide open.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw dozens of fliers gliding my way. Sweat trickled down my face and rained from the tip of my nose, freezing into tiny crystals when it hit the sphere of Stasis. The rocket stick dropped another few feet, engine whirring at top speed. Another twenty yards and I'd hit the crystoid.
Touching a smaller one had nearly turned me into a mindless malaether zombie. I didn't want to think what one this huge would do to me. In a few seconds the fliers would kill me or the crystoid would.
The stink of burnt electronics stung my nose and the rocket stick died. Without an anchor to hold me up, the magnetic pull on the crystoid jerked me mercilessly earthward.
Shouting as I fell, I refused to stop channeling. The meteor rushed to meet me, crystal spikes ready to spit me like a pig. The Stasis finally suffused the core. The center sagged. With a dull roar, the meteor collapsed and I smacked into a mountain of gray dust and sank. Crystallized ash filled my mouth and nose and another threat immediately replaced the crystal spikes.
Blindly, I thrashed, still upside down, the rocket stick tangled between my legs. I was going to choke to death. I tried to find firm purchase, but it was like climbing a hill of goose down, sagging and slipping away. My lungs burned and panic gripped my heart, burning through my remaining oxygen.
I tried to gasp for air and only filled my mouth with brittle soot. I wanted to scream as terror strummed my insides with sharp claws, whispering, "You're going to die."
A soft voice reached me.
You will be okay, my friend. Stop struggling and find the cold calm that will help you.
Who is that?
I sent, shocked out of my panic.
No answer came, but then I sensed the cold calm lingering gently on my senses. It wasn't the cold of death, but the chill of creation.
The aether is back.
I drew it in focusing on my skin as I'd done before. Channeling Murk from every pore, I created a shield and shoved away the mountain of dust in all directions until I sat in a small dark void.
I hacked up a lungful of gray dust and took a breath of delicious air. When the dizziness faded, I channeled a small orb of Brilliance to light the area. Despite being buried alive, I felt oddly safe, like a child hiding beneath the bedcovers from the monsters in the room.
The luxury of remaining hidden wasn't something I could afford. I had to reach the surface and help Elyssa and the others. I channeled a thick rod of Murk from the bottom of the sphere, thrusting it down until it hit solid earth, then used it to push my bubble upward. When it burst from the ash, I widened it so it would have the surface area to roll across the top.
Using it like a gerbil sphere, I ran and rolled the big bubble until I finally reached the side. Enemy fliers circled overhead attacked, but with aether back, our people were able to respond in kind.
Tears trickled down Flava's cheeks as she struck down one of the fliers and Nailan looked away as another enemy slammed into the ground and rolled to a stop. Cephus was forcing these people to kill their own.
Clutching the rocket stick in one hand, and channeling a shield with the other, I struggled up the rubble and reached my friends.
Elyssa wrapped her arms around me. "I saw you vanish into the ash. I tried to go down there, but we're under constant fire."
"I'm fine," I assured her.
"The aether is back," Flava said. "Can you get your army?"
"I need to reach Kdosh and find out why the Alabaster Arch there isn't working," I said. "It might be another crystoid."
"If there's another crystoid, the skyway won't work," Flava said. "There are three connections between here and the skylet. The last one is in Ooskai Valley, still an hour away from the arch by skyway."
Legionnaires shifted position and channeled another shield as the fliers adjusted their pattern of attack.
"How far on foot?" I asked.
She shook her head. "You can't reach Kdosh on foot."
"I can fly the rocket stick—"
"Through the Great Barrier Vortex?" Flava gave me an incredulous look. "You'd never survive the journey."
"Well, we've got to reach it somehow," I said. "Staying here is no longer an option. We need to evacuate."
"And abandon the city?" Nailan said, aghast. "But our duty—"
"Your duty is to take back the city," I said. "If we can reach Kdosh and activate the arch, I have an army waiting on the other side in Eden."
"We will go," Flava said, wincing as enemy attacks exploded against the shield. "Today marks a victory, but we need an army to defeat Cephus."
Philas put a hand on Nailan's shoulder. "I agree, sir."
"What about the rest of your scouts?" Elyssa said.
"They know to return to base," Nailan said, "but they will not know what happened to us if no one returns to tell them."
"I will go," a seraph said. "Give me your orders and I will relay them."
Nailan nodded grimly. "Tell them to continue gathering intel and care for the prisoners." He selected a group of ten more legionnaires. "Go with him and protect each other. We will return, Creator willing."
They splayed their fingers in salute and then raced off toward the city, channeling shields to protect themselves from any pursuing fliers.
A new form of panic hit me. "Your scouts still have Nookli!"
Nailan's brow furrowed. "Do you speak of the device you gave them?"
I nodded.
"I am certain they will keep it safe."
I really wanted to get my phone back. "How am I supposed to find Indian restaurants?" I whimpered.
Elyssa groaned. "Let's get ready to move out."
Flava ordered her people into a phalanx. "Link with each other and keep us shielded," she said. "Move out!"
We retreated at a steady pace. The fliers followed, relentlessly firing at us with mindless devotion. With aether back in production, the legionnaires were able to thwart their attacks, while the rest of us took down as many attackers as we could without killing them. Though the mutants had the advantage of flight, we were no longer powerless against their attacks.
Unless Cephus devised something else, the forces of Eden should have no problem defeating his minions. Then again, unless we wanted the wholesale slaughter of citizens on our conscience, we'd have to beat them without lethal force.
About thirty minutes into our trip, fliers began tumbling out of the sky. Legionnaires caught as many as they could on cushions of Murk, but it was impossible to save them all.
"What is happening?" Flava said, face red with tears after she failed to catch one of the fliers.
"They've been attacking us non-stop all this time," Elyssa said. "Their bodies couldn't take the strain anymore."
I looked up and realized the sky was clear. We stood at the fringe of the wasteland, damaged buildings only a few yards away.
"Check the fallen," Flava ordered.
I knelt next to the nearest one and pulled off the helmet to reveal a young sera beneath. Her skin felt ice-cold to the touch, and no breath came from her lips. I felt around the seam on the side where the chest plate joined the back armor and found a latch on the inside near the waist. It clicked open and Elyssa tugged off the chest plate.
Flava pressed a hand to the sera's shaved head and closed her eyes. Lips trembling, she pulled away, face red with rage. "He drove them to death," she hissed. "I will kill this monster with my bare hands. I will see his blood spilled."
"The Void take him." Nailan spat.
The legionnaires checked the other fallen fliers and returned with the same grim news. They were all dead, driven past their physical limits by a monster.
"Death is too good for Cephus," I growled.
"Gladly will I give it to him," Flava replied. "Death may be too good, but life is far too great for him to draw another breath if I have a choice."
"Agreed," Nailan said.
I stared at the bodies littering the wasteland between us and the mountain of rubble in the distance. They deserved proper rites, but it would have to wait. I decided that decision wasn't mine to make, and looked at Flava. "We're on a tight schedule, but if you think we need to bury the dead—"
She shook her head. "We will honor the dead with victory, the sooner the better."
I nodded. "Then let's go."
We traveled down empty streets, the vacant buildings towering tombstones for a city once bustling with Darklings. I thought I glimpsed movement, a fleeting shadow here, a face vanishing behind a corner there, but we came across no other signs of life.
It reminded me of the Gloom, a shadow copy of the real world where floating brains called minders gathered the dreams of the living and spun them into aether, the source of magic. This city was as desolate as the Gloom version of Eden my father and I had been trapped in. There, we'd found Serena and her Gloom fortress where she conducted her mad experiments. After I'd defeated her BFF, Daelissa, she'd probably sworn vengeance on me, the destruction of the Darkling nation part of the price.
I hoped we'd be able to pull the citizens of Tarissa back together again once we finished off Cephus. I didn't know the state of the rest of Pjurna, but we'd need every able body to bring the Brightling Empire to its knees and finally unite Seraphina under a combined government. If we could bring peace here, we'd avoid a replay of the Seraphim Wars and secure peace for Eden.
For now, I'd be ecstatic to return to Eden and see my friends again.
We reached the waist-high stone pedestal with a gray gem on top of it. The tall pearly gates guarding access to the skyway had been torn loose and sat in a heap to the side.
Flava knelt and ran a finger down a gate. "Our people were desperate to escape, but travel to Kdosh was forbidden." She stood and gazed into the sky beyond. "I pray none of them were on the skyway when the crystoid disabled it."
I glanced over the side into the swirling vortex of aether holding up the massive skylet and shuddered at the long fall into oblivion.
"Let's pray the skyway works," Nailan said. Holding out a finger, he sent a jolt of Murk into the gem.
A misty road of clouds unfurled into the air, stretching into the distance. I tentatively tested it with a foot and found it to be firm. "I hope Cephus doesn't have a spare crystoid."
Elyssa grimaced. "Wish I'd brought the parachutes with us just in case."
"I don't think I could live with myself if everyone else fell to their deaths around us," I said.
She sighed. "I suppose you're right."
I took Elyssa's hand and we stepped onto the clouds. I visualized our destination.
Take us to Kdosh
. Like a conveyer belt, we began to move forward.
The others stepped on behind us and we soon gathered speed, flying across the land and hopefully toward salvation.
Elyssa turned and gasped at the rays of dawn touching the horizon. "It's beautiful."
I wrapped an arm around her and enjoyed the receding view of the floating city of Tarissa. The flowing organic structures at the outskirts gave the illusion it had never suffered the destruction we'd witnessed in the center. I wondered how long it would take to rebuild and how long to repair the psyches of its citizens.
Then again, they were accustomed to constant war with the Brightlings. Maybe they'd be more resilient than I thought.
I sat down and a cushion of clouds formed under my backside. Elyssa's eyes flashed with surprise. She followed my example and a misty chair coalesced beneath her.