17.

Tony

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“They’re all dead?” One of the Halit asked, eyes wide. My hands were shaking as I sat in front of them. The generals sat in front of me, alongside any soldier with rank. In any other scenario, I would have been impressed by the amount of security for just one city, but now, I was just calculating how fast Xassin’s father would clear them. Five minutes, max, I thought. They wouldn’t stand a chance, not against him. They had to leave. The entire system wasn’t safe if he showed up. And he was probably mad that the mind escaped his reach again. X... Míriel... I shook my head and pushed them to the back of my mind. I needed to avenge them. Then I’d mourn.

“Yes...they are. The only reason I’m alive and the mind is intact is because of Arch-mage Xassin. A flurry of murmurs went up as they shook their heads in disbelief. “What now?”, someone finally asked. There was only one option, they all had to leave.

“How long will it take to evacuate the entire system?”, I asked, standing up and pacing. “A few cycles, why?” There was time. I could get them out of the system before he came. “Do it now, before he comes back.” The murmurs grew louder until one of them stood up. “We need his majesty’s express permission to do that. As long as he’s not here we can’t–“ I banged my fist on the table. You don’t get it, do you? M’gethir’s dead! So is Xassin and everyone else that went to fight that thing! You better make a decision now, or else, the blood of all those innocents will be on your hands!”

They seemed shocked for a second, as if M’gethir was some undying god and the thought of him perishing was impossible. Then they all finally looked at me and nodded. The next few minutes were spent disengaging the spell that disengaged them from normal reality. Then planets with life on them were sent through massive portals. Soon, only battle planets and Le’uthara were left. A shield was set up around the planetary formation.

“You have to leave too, I’m afraid you’re no match for him.”, I said, looking at the remaining men that stayed to defend their home and the Mind. The rest escaped through the portals, I didn’t blame them, I would have done the same if I heard the someone killed all the gods, Arch-mages and primordials in Nirvana at once.

“Neither are you.”, one said stubbornly. He looked my age, with a black mop of hair. He looked like he had never seen a battle in his life. The rest looked at me with firm determination, they were going to stay, no matter what I said. “,Thank you for reminding me.”, I said sarcastically. “This is our last stand. It’s either I defeat him or I die.” I knew I was going to die, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for that bastard. “You mean we, don’t you? Another voice chimed in. These guys were so stubborn, but I can’t let them stay.

“No, I mean me.”, I said finally and waved my hand. My hand erupted in a blue flash as they all shimmered and disappeared. Silence greeted me and I looked up. Sure enough, there was a yellow light spreading across the shields. He was here. We barely made it. In a flash, the shields were broken and he was heading towards the mind, ignoring me. I immediately released my limiters and kicked him across the face, into the ground. M y body burned with pain, as I passed my limit several times, but I didn’t care. He was going to pay for everything. He grabbed my neck, but I tore his arm off and punched him into the ground again, this time, releasing a Quasar. The planet was gone and he fell, landing on another battle planet.

He seemed to have lost his bearings for a bit, and I was going to take full advantage of that. I zipped away a few light-years, grabbed the biggest star I could find and zipped back, smashing the star into the battle planet with him in the middle. I summoned my katana and held my stance.

“Sword of the shard, seventh stance: Vengeance”.

The star exploded with force and I’m pushed back a bit. Before I can blink, a fist strikes my chest and breaks everything, both my fortifications and ribs. I’m hurled backwards, but before I can get far, he catches my neck and I hear a voice in my head. “Lets see how you like it.” The system is already shrinking I the distance and he throws me headfirst into a star. Then he starts punching me ruthlessly, deeper and deeper into the star. It explodes halfway through and he grabs me again, repeating the process through a hundred or more stars.

I was coughing up blood as I try to block his punches and get a shattered arm in return. My regeneration slowed as my body can’t handle the Shard's energy anymore. Somehow, I find myself back on Le’uthara. My body loses its blue glow as I start drifting. I see X’s father walk towards the ship. I can’t move anything, so I watch helpless as he rips the door open. I’m sorry... he’s too strong...

Is this all you amount to, Tony? A voice jolts me back to reality. After one beat down, that’s it? “Shut it, Ente, I’m just getting started!” I pour out my shard energy, healing myself and standing back up. “Hey!”, I tell at him. He stops and turns around, regarding me with interest now. “I thought I had killed you already. Well, I wouldn’t expect less from a shard user like me.” He turned around fully, facing me.

“Fine then, I’ll humour you by going all out.” His eyes glowed and he was standing in front of me before I could even think. He grabbed my neck and squeezed, breaking everything of importance in one squeeze. I summoned my new staff and it spun, hitting him square in the chest. His chest was erased immediately and he fell back, releasing his grip. I gagged and gasped for a few seconds as my windpipe reconstituted itself in my throat.

Xassin’s father was already regenerating, but I wasn’t going to give him time. I rushed at him again, this time furiously slashing at his body, I erased everything save for the shards, they seemed immune to spatial erasure, so I tried breaking them, a dumb idea, but I was willing to try anything. As I’d expected, nothing happened. I sure as hell didn’t have enough strength to destroy an object capable of withstanding the full brunt of attacks from a being that could destroy a multiverse without flinching.

“Zurvan’s hammer, yes?” a voice came from behind me. My skin crawled at the voice, just inches away from my ear. I do a full 360 with the staff, but no one’s there. “I see you remodelled it quite nicely, even attuned it to your shard energy. A little genius. I can see why my son holds you in high regard.” His voice was always just behind me, but I was never able to catch him. I calmed down and focused. He was here, and I could catch him if I was careful enough.

“Did he ever tell you why he hates me so much?” his voice sounded closer, but I ignored the urge to swing it at him again. Instead, I spoke. “Because you’re a crazy maniacal murderer that enjoyed killing his mother?” My senses were on high alert as I tried to pinpoint where he was exactly. “Well, yes...but he also hates me because he thinks I jeopardized our safety for my personal gain. He thinks I wanted more power. In actuality, I wanted to heal his mother, but after I became one with Lord Zoi, all is irrelevant, for he is all, and all is he.” He stopped to cackle and continued.

“You will soon be one with the all, we all will!”

Gotcha!

I turned around and put all my strength in my hand, throwing the staff at Xassin’s father. Space stretched and warped around the staff, impacting the point I sensed Xassin’s father. The impact shaved off a good portion of the planet, but when the dust cleared, he just stood there. The staff quivered in his hand and fell to the ground. “I changed my mind” he said, before punching me in half. “ I’ll kill you now” I willed my lower half back to my body and re-joined it.

“Shard transformation, level four: Tempest.”

There was a loud hum as my shard energy changed from blue to red. The staff reformed in my hand and I charged at him again. “Rage orbs”, I say as a large, glowing orb appears around him trapping him for a split second. “Zero” I picked up some tricks from Zurvan, I could shrink areas in space down to an infinitesimal point, smaller than even the quantum states. And in addition to my rage orbs that got stronger when you try to break them, it was the most powerful containment I had for now. If that didn’t work, I had no other– Boom.

The explosion was so massive that the planet was immediately vaporised, and so were the two battle planets that were close by. I was at the centre of the whole thing and was hurled back into Le’uthara. I couldn’t even stand up at this point, all my transformations were gone, and I was pretty sure moving any more would kill me. I could only watch as X’s father landed beside me in a cloud of dust. He ignored me and started making his way to the ark, laughing all the way. This was it...I’ve done all I can...

I closed my eyes and started passing out when a white flash jolts me back awake. It’s lightning. And the familiar figure of Zeus and... Míriel? I squinted to get a better look, Míriel was there. How? I...I saw him kill her! I look frantically around for X, but he’s nowhere to be found. Zeus isn’t smiling this time, his face hard as stone. Míriel sees me, sprawled out on the floor. I don’t remember her running to meet me, one moment she was there, the next, she was cradling my head against her boobs. They were soft and really bouncy. I would have passed out right there and then if she didn’t shout my name.

I opened my eyes to se those beautiful emerald green eyes looking at me, filled with something I suspected to be tears. “Hey...” I managed, before she kissed me. I closed my eyes, taking her all in. Tears dropped onto my face and I sighed happily. “How are you alive?” I asked, when the kiss was over and she started healing me. “Don’t worry, X saved us. This is part of his plan.” X was alive? I sat up as she kept explaining how Astaroth took them back to his home and the events that occurred.

“You were right, you know... M’gethir is a lying bastard.” I could move my legs now, but I was too exhausted. I just turned my head to where Zeus stood, electricity crackling with anger. He was staring down Xassin’s father. In a flash, he was behind him, discharging enough electricity to push him away from the ship. “Kaymaer!, I have come to collect my pound of flesh.” Zeus was very, very angry.

“By all means.”, came X’s father’s reply. “Try all you want.” Zeus pulled his white flowing hair into a bun and ran his hand over his face. “Thunder god, first aspect: Raijin.” A white mask covered his face and two black lightning shards appeared behind him. He grabbed them both and purple lightning exuded from them furiously. “Well then, I guess I should go all out then” He rushed at him with deadly intent and began hacking away at him. Kaymaer was flustered as he tried to block, but Zeus was faster.

His suit started to tear as he got faster and faster. Soon enough, Kaymaer was forced backwards by the intensity of the attacks, but I saw he was just toying with him again. Zeus knew that too, but didn’t mind, it was almost as if he was trying to buy time, but for what? “Is this part of X’s plan?”, I asked Míriel. She was already standing, staring at the battle. She was going to join them, I realized and grabbed her hand.

“You can’t! You’ll die! I can’t lose you again, please.” She smiled at me and bent down to kiss me. “Do you trust me?” I held her cheek in my palm. “Yes, but...” she put her finger to my lips. “Do you trust Xassin?” I nodded, unable to understand. She stood up and smiled again. “Then we’ll be fine.” I watched her transform I to a...demon? Horns grew out of her head and jet black wings sprouted out of her back. A black tattoo appeared on her forehead and she turned away. Then she was gone.

Immediately, a portal opened over the battlefield. Zeus jumped back as a torrent of blades rained from above. Some were deflected by Kaymaer, but he was impaled continuously. Míriel rose from behind him and started attacking him. Kaymaer was now annoyed as he flung Zeus away, but Míriel withstood him. She brought out her daggers and they blazed with hellflame. “You’re a demon goddess. Interesting, I’ve never killed one of you before, this will be fun.”

Demon goddess? This just keeps getting weirder. Míriel ignores him and continues barraging him with attacks. She punches him into the sky and chases after him. He seems flustered for a bit, as he gets hit continuously. Her voice rings out as her palm erupts into green flames. “Demon flame art: Purga!” She hits him squarely on the chest and I hear him screech as his insides erupt into green flames also. She doesn’t give him time to reconstitute himself when she raises her hand.

A large sigil appears above them and chains shoot out grabbing him. Black long hands pull the chain back into the sigil. “Torment.” The hands are about to completely pull him into the sigil when he glows a sickly yellow and explodes. I squint as the glow he gives off is as bright as a star. His face is visible now , with his flowing white hair like X’s, but that’s where the similarities end. His eyes are bright yellow and his skin has a glassy material jutting out from his hands and joints.

“Shard of Chaos, third shard release: Entropy.” Nothing happens for a few seconds, then a star whizzes past at incredible speed, just barely missing Míriel. She rushes to attack him but stops to dodge another wave of asteroids. Then another star. Soon, more. And more things start flying across the system randomly. What is happening?, is what is on my mind. A particularly large star is headed for the battle planet we’re on, but Zeus flew through and destroyed it.

In the distance I can see more celestial bodies headed for us, not sure how long we could keep destroying them , as they came in torrents. The pain in my body was barely gone and I stood, ready to join in, when Míriel fell to the ground. Her wings were torn off and she strained to sit up as I ran towards her. “Hey, hey, hey...easy...”, she groaned and sat up, her bloodied wings shrinking back into her body. “He’s too strong. I can’t.....” She coughed up blood.

I turned to glare at Kaymaer. His shards were burning now, spread behind him in a triangular pattern and slowly rotating. He raised his hand and we could see the space around it distort as a black hole appeared. It was the size of a small soccer ball, but if not for my Shard’s aura, I would be dead. He put his hand into the hole and it disappeared. I gasped as I saw what has in his hand. A white hole. It pulsed with bright white light as he held it in front of him. He grinned maniacally and then hurled it towards us. The white hole expanded slowly as it flew towards us. Nothing could stop it, Zeus tried and lost an arm. The light got brighter and brighter, and I held Míriel close. This was it, I thought. I closed my eyes and braced for the impact. The death would be painless, but I didn’t want to die looking at that bastard in fear.

It never came. I could still feel the glare of the white hole, I could still hear the roar and energy of it, but death never came. I opened my eyes to see the white hole already past where the atmosphere was supposed to be. I squinted to see a dark figure standing in front of the white hole. I could recognise that hoodie anywhere, no matter how tattered it was. X...it was X. But it was different...he was different. I couldn't sense anything from him. He was just floating there. Then I noticed the halo. It was pure white, with spikes jutting out at four corners. Then he moved his hand, a simple movement, and flicked this ginger across the surface of the white hole.

“Disperse.” In an instant, the entire white hole was gone, leaving the father shocked. His face was confused, and even disturbed.

Míriel smiled. “It worked.” He controlled the Mind. He did what? I looked at X again and he was staring down his father. He didn’t have that burning rage in his eyes, or any form of anger towards his father. He looked like someone that just saw a roach. He was looking like someone that was far superior. He also looked sad, but, I didn’t think about that. 

There may still be hope for this world.