Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (11 page)

Lewis retracted the magical blade, closed it, and put it back in his suit pocket. The black eyed Book Wielder walked casually back to the entrance, swinging the doors open and peeking outside in a comical fashion.

“Guys,” he said to the two altered troopers. He thumbed backwards in the direction of Lucius’ remains. “Clean that mess up for us.”

- - -

“Winston, bringer of succulence and snacks!” the Foreman boomed down from his speaker-filled mouth. “We are ready to begin the carnage!”

Winston gave a thumbs-up in the general direction of the Foreman’s face. He’d been preparing for this moment for weeks, and now he would see if all his prudent planning had paid off. Holding his book in one hand and his quill in the other, he raised his arms outwards at his sides and closed his eyes. He imagined all of the required locations on his mental map of Pollutia and began tearing open portals into reality.

In the real world, in Industria City, word had spread that the forces of the Archmage were about to take the city, but the news was too convoluted with rumours and it had arrived far too late. Panicking civilians either hid in their homes praying to the Twin Goddesses for the best, or stampeded towards the docks and harbours in the hope of reaching a vessel bound for elsewhere. Trinity of Old and Inquisition reinforcements struggled to rally their own ranks, and the portals had only just begun to open. Most of the rebels were fighting out in front of the city, unable to retreat to the city without allowing their aggressors in with them. The Clockwork Angels and Desem Patriots had been valiantly defending the innocents in the cities up and down the Desem coast line and in the small town and villages within the heart of the continent, but they were now extremely hard-pressed to make it to the real battle. The only real hope the rebels had of stopping Winston was the Autons, who were currently defending the World GOVT building plaza and waiting for him to make his move.

As the army of Alternatives began pouring into Industria City, Gloom weaponry and vehicles went crazy causing chaos and havoc down the metropolis’ roads and streets. Inquisitors and other human defenders pumped the ranks of their material foes with bolts and lances of molten plasma energy, spouting regular fire and blue plasma fire from flamethrowers at their assailants, and torrents of gunfire poured into the Alternatives as they attempted to take the city. Rebel Vampires fired their guns with untold accuracy, each shot hitting its mark, and slashed with swords and melee weapons, leaving a trail of twitching material bodies and limbs behind them. Werewolves scratched and slashed, raked and tore, bit and bashed the Alternatives into ribbons, and Shamans fried their puppet adversaries to dust with surges of lightning from their hands or straight from the skies above. Mages unleashed their unbridled destructive wrath at the invaders; giant fireballs engulfed, ice lanced, froze and shattered, force magic blasted, bolts of electricity crackled and singed, and magical energy of every, shape, size, colour and element imaginable annihilated the Gloom forces. But for every Alternative killed, another five took their place, stronger, faster and better equipped to deal with the tiring Supernatural and human defenders. As Spidertanks and armoured trucks with savage faces entered the fray, all seemed lost for the rebels before it had even begun.

Over the din the sound of old engines, rotors, and jets could faintly be heard in the distance. The rebel forces fought on with a new found strength and hope. Their air support had arrived.

A wave of jet fighters from the end of the Great War zoomed overhead, followed by their slower propeller-driven ancestors from the war’s early days. After they had passed, dozens of attack helicopters and a couple of Inquisition airships began combing through the city. The helicopters fired missiles, miniguns and machineguns at the hordes of Alts, and the airships did the same but with the added edge of their plasma armaments. They also correlated information to the fighters and bombers above to provide accurate targets with the least chance of collateral damage, although the city was already suffering heavy damage from all the other sources of mayhem filled battles.

From the Gloom, Winston opened portals in the sky, and the Alternative pilots in their insanely dangerous bi-planes and dirigible airships entered into the real world. The few black dragons that the Archmage had sent over to Pollutia waited behind. The old beasts would cross with Winston to keep him safe.

Soon the skies were as congealed with violence and destruction as Industria City below. The crazy selection of planes dodged and twisted in between the columns of smog filtering upwards. Even during the chaos, some manufactories and power plants continued to run on their automated settings. Some aircrafts used the thick clouds as cover and others used them to ambush from. Bullets, missiles and plasma beams crossed with sickly green Gloom energy pulses, lightning lances, and blasts. In addition to energy, the Alternative aircraft spat everything and anything from their strange bulky shrapnel guns including nails and screws, knife blades and caltrops, and wires and springs. Both sides suffered heavily in the aerial assault and like just like the battle below, no clear victor could currently be discerned.

- - -

Nearby, the cyberpunk Mage with icy blue hair named Zero and her gang, the Clockwork Angels, drove southwards in their sports cars down the raised super-highway towards the heart of Industria city. Accompanying them were the Desem Patriots on their classic motorcycles, and both gangs rode even faster than they had been after seeing the explosions in the skies and the smoke and fire rising from the metropolis. As they neared the slip road that would take them downwards towards the city, they saw that their path had been blocked. Trucks, lorries, and construction vehicles had been parked deliberately to deny entrance to both exits, even on the other side of the super-highway.

Zero stuck one arm out of her neon blue sports car window, keeping the other firmly planted on the wheel, and aimed her palm towards the blocked exit. A circle of glowing blue runes appeared in the air just inches away from her hand. A film of misty cyan rushed down her shoulder and collected into a ball in the centre of the runes. It charged, growing and glowing more intensely before Zero launched it into the roadblock like a comet.

Other Mages and the spell users amongst the Werewolves and Vampires had done the same. Their combined magic annihilated the roadblock in a brilliant explosion that left little except burning scrap metal. Once again they upped their speed to reach Industria City.

That’s when the first of the Anarchy’s Ascendants pounced from the side of the road. Werewolf Brutebeasts and Vampire Ironfangs and Nightclaws had been clinging to the sides of the raised road waiting for their moment to strike. They threw themselves onto the bikers, slashed tires, and landed on sports cars to pull the drivers out through the windscreen.

The Supernaturals from the Desem Patriots and Clockwork Angels quickly regrouped. They left their vehicles aside and retaliated with all their might. The Werewolves transformed, the Mages cast their spells and the Vampires put their speed and strength to the test. Clouds of bats and swarms of animals ravaged each other as Vampire Nightclaws and Werewolf Shamans used their transformation abilities to the extreme.

Sniper fire downed several of Zero’s people, and she had to cancel a spell just to get a barrier up in time to save her skin. She looked around for an exit but all she could see were the Clockwork Angels and Desem Patriots falling around her. If they weren’t shot to pieces by sniper fire, they were slain by their foes on the super-highway.

“Oh, well, if it isn’t Zero herself!” Kitaria Catawowski, otherwise known as Kitty Cat or Kat, said loudly and annoyingly.

Zero scowled. The leader of the Anarchy’s Ascendants was walking up the super-highway where the roadblock was, with a massive crowd of Alternatives and Supernaturals. Kat was dressed in the normal dark grey and black ‘uniform’ that her gang wore. She was a pretty Mage with slightly tanned skinned, long auburn hair in a tight ponytail and attractive slanted eyes. But her expression was always stuck in a foul hate-filled expression.

“What the fuck are you doing, you little skank?” Zero said frantically. “Have you gone fucking insane?!”

With a gesture, Kat’s people dispersed and began killing mercilessly. Any foe they had trouble with met their end with a precise shot to the head or heart from the tactically placed snipers on the city’s outlying buildings.

“Haven’t you heard what we’re doing?” Kat shouted. “We’re going to change the world, and we’ll rule it like gods.”

Zero dusted her black and blue bodysuit off and straightened herself up. “You mean the Archmage will rule like a God,” she said back bravely.

Kat angrily sent a fireball towards Zero, who deflected it towards where she hoped the snipers were hiding.

Some of Kitty Cat’s guards went to attack Zero but she held them back. “This bitch is mine,” Kat spat angrily. “No one bad-mouths the Archmage and gets away with it. He’s going to be the saviour of our kind.”

“You really are an insane little dim-witted witch,” Zero said coldly, before sending a torrent of cyan energy at Kat from both hands.

Kat quickly retaliated with her own beam of intense orangey red fire, and their spells met in the middle and sent a shockwave outwards that threw most of the other combatants to the floor. The two mages struggled to get the upper hand over the other. The blue energy surged forwards and was then pushed back by the orange and red one. The process repeated over and over, and the beams grew stronger and stronger. They were both beginning to tire but neither one of the female Mages would yield to the other. They fought on for their very lives. Kat suddenly dropped one of her arms, maintaining her beam with just one hand, and in a quick motion she grabbed a pistol from her waist and unloaded it in the direction of Zero. Only a few of the bullets hit their target, but it was enough. Zero gargled blood, her arms dropped, and so did she. Kat’s bright beam of fiery energy tore straight through her and detonated most of the super-highway behind.

“Finish up here boys and girls,” Kat said to her people, reloading her pistol and slotting it back in her belt. “We’ve got plenty more killing to do yet.”

- - -

The time had come for Winston to make his move. He opened a portal above for the dragons to fly through and then made a smaller one for himself. “See you soon!” he shouted up to the Foreman before he left.

He walked out into the Industria City plaza and looked around at the destruction; he’d have to act quickly to save the industrial metropolis from more destruction. Looking up at the World GOVT building he could see that it was crawling with Autons, and using his new powers he could also sense something bad within the tower. The rebels must have had a little time to prepare.

The Archmage’s dragons began blasting the sides of the building with their red-hot purple and black flame breath. The agile type Autons fired back with their wrist lasers but the dragons deftly dodged any incoming blasts. Autons from within the tall glass windowed building joined their mechanical comrades in shooting at the dragons. Their rifles were bigger and deadly, and they even managed to land a few hits. Dusty old scales detached in puffs of ash as the plasma shots collided with the old beasts, but they still continued their assault unfazed. Their job was to protect Winston, no matter the cost.

Winston was dressed very smartly in a black pinstripe Shadow Circle suit for the momentous occasion. He tightened his grip on his book and quill; he wouldn’t need anything else. Blasts of plasma came flying towards him from the World GOVT building. The Autons had found their primary target, but the bolts of energy phased out of existence just inches away from the Book Wielder.

After he had accidently created a picture of the gang on his honeymoon, Winston had experimented with the manipulation magic that he had previously been struggling so badly with (in between his fun with Veronica). He remembered back to the night when he had proposed to her. A Trinity sniper had shot him in the head twice, and the first shot had been deflected by his ring of protection, but the second shot had stopped and simply vanished not far from his face. When he connected the dots, he realised that he didn’t need to get his head around all of the intricacies that his book was displaying – although, he did have the sneaky feeling that he’d have to be an Archmage to decipher it fully. All he had to do was wield his book and golden quill, and ‘will’ the results strongly enough for them to happen. It was incredibly draining and the bigger the reality manipulation, the greater the cost in his strength and stamina. Winston wondered how the Archmage pulled his off so effortlessly, but then realised that Demons seemed to have a knack for changing the appearances of things when they wanted to. He guessed the quill’s effects were set in stone, whereas Demon magic ended if and when they did.

Winston opened his arms and prepared to start the process. Every blast of plasma that hurtled into him was another chunk of his energy lost, and as the mechanical defenders had lost all interest in the dragons, there was an ever increasing barrage of bolts to nullify. He would have to get this done and fast. Winston closed his eyes and felt his feet leave the floor. He peeked beneath him and saw that he was steadily rising. His plan had worked.

Flying was another little trick he’d learnt, although like all the high-end magic he was now studying it was highly fatiguing. Winston upped his speed until the broken floor-to-ceiling windows and relentless Autons were passing by in a blur. He came to a stop at the top of the building and rested for a moment on the concrete roof, and the red-eyed dragons landed either side of him. He could feel what the rebels had left for him below. He knew he didn’t have long, so he reached into his suit jacket’s inner pocket, picked out two of many potent energy potions, and downed them both at the same time. Discarding the little glass vials onto the roof where they shattered into a million pieces, he briefly thought back to the first merger.