The Unfinished World (The Armor of God Book 2) (32 page)

“No,” the man said. “This is—this is where we’ll be safe—”

It wasn’t the panic attack that stopped him from talking, but Lys’ laughter, resonating in the sanctum and becoming omnipresent. It could hear them, and it was mocking them.

The laughter was drowned by the sound of an electric shock. Bright sparks flashed and showered down the chasm as one of the cables linking the giant to Alice’s body disconnected from her shoulder. The limb detached and fell down the chasm as the wire began to thrash violently.

It stretched away from the monster, gaining dangerous reach.

Lys laughed, coiling Alice’s purple lips.

The thick wire whipped towards them.

Erin ducked, and the deadly cord cut through the air inches above her.

William Heath grunted and wheezed. When Ezra turned around to look, the wire had gone through the man’s chest.

“There’s blood—are you all right?” the old man whispered in a hoarse and labored voice, looking at Erin with dead eyes. His legs gave in under him.

When blood started pouring down from the deadly wound in William’s chest, Farren roared and ran towards the president, but the man’s body was dragged away like a marionette.

The captain fell trying to reach William, and screamed in horror when the wire pulled the body past the edge of the ground, and into the long stretch of darkness below.

“Get out of here!” Erin yelled when another wire disconnected from Alice’s body and thrashed with killing intent. “Get out!”

Jena was too far away from the rest, too close to Alice at the other side of the blue pit—the heart of the mountain, the source of all this evil. “
Jena
!” Ezra screamed, but his efforts to warn her only distracted her.

She was looking back at him. The Asili, which could have very well been a whole world, stood between her and safety. The wire lashed down to strike and kill.

Jena turned around.

Ezra closed his eyes, and heard both Jena and Erin scream.

He opened them again. Farren was standing between Jena and Alice, the wire sticking out of his armored back.

“Protect—
everyone
. . .” said Farren, and his teeth were red with blood.

When Farren fell limp on top of Jena, Ezra ran towards her in a reflexive action that didn’t require any consideration. He didn’t care about the dangers anymore. He couldn’t hear Erin yell his name. He couldn’t hear Lys laughing, sure that it had already won this and any future battles.

The monster in Alice’s flesh drew back the wire to drag the body into the chasm. Jena grabbed ahold of Farren’s breastplate, and when she was losing grip, Ezra grabbed the man’s hand. The combined strength of Jena and Ezra was barely enough to keep Lys from taking Farren away and feeding him to the darkness.

The pierced plate on his back snapped off his body, and Farren fell free of Lys’ grasp.

Taking the chance, Ezra dragged Farren’s body away from the monster, and when he found his strength running short, Garros’ proved to be more than enough. He picked Farren up and ordered them to run, to get out of the sanctum.

Ezra pulled Jena by the hand as they circled around the Asili and ran towards the door, hearing the whipping noises of the wire indiscriminately searching for a third victim.

When everyone else landed at the other side of the tunnel, in the crowded chapel, the soldiers closed the heavy doors to seal Lys’ mocking laughter away. But there was no silence to replace the bloodcurdling cackle; the people’s screams began when the first person saw the dark maroon hole in Farren’s naked back.

“Stand back!” one of the soldiers yelled, rolling Farren onto his back so he could breathe. “Captain! Captain?
What did you do now
?”

Farren looked up at the man.

“Thank you,” he said at no one in particular before turning his head to inspect the faces of those who were going to witness his death. His eyes landed on Ezra and stayed there.

Ezra was sorry. He knew the captain deserved better, despite all he had done. He kneeled down next to the dying man. “Captain—Captain Farren, there’s something you should know.”

The captain looked at him. If he wanted Ezra to stop speaking, he couldn’t say it anymore, so Ezra just spoke a few final comforting words. It was his only chance of making it easier.

“She’s okay, Captain. She’s alive. Elena didn’t die out there. She’s alive. I’ll take care of her for you.”

“She—who?” Farren said and his face began to twitch, battling muscular reflexes of unbearable pain and sadness. “Who—?”

And then, with that final thought, he died. Ezra heard a sickening gurgle of liquid clogging Farren’s throat, and when he let out his last breath, it streamed down his cheek.

“
Be laid to rest
,” whispered the soldier who had been holding Farren’s head, and clenched his jaw in anger. “Where’s the president?”

Ezra was unlucky enough to be the recipient of his question, and couldn’t answer. The soldier looked for it among the others, and it was Erin who shook her head to let him know that the president was also gone.

“You need to go,” said the soldier. “Malachi, the captain, the president. I don’t care what’s happening out there, but you need to go. And anyone who wants to go with them should do it!”

He yelled the last words.

“Yes. We’ll go out there,” Erin said. “We’ll clear this place for you. When we do, everyone who’s leaving with us needs to move quickly outside. We’ll try to have the carts ready to go.”

“One of us needs to stay here,” said Garros and looked at his wife. “You need to stay here. I’ll go out there with Jena and Ezra. We don’t need more than that; you can keep these people calm in here. You’re good at keeping people calm. You’re—”

“No. We talked about this. I’m going out there. We need to fight and clear a way for Ezra and Jena, and I’m not risking you going alone. I know you’re afraid, but we’re going to be okay, Garros. If we stick together.”

“People are
dying
,” he yelled, and the citizens immediately detected his panic—it became more infectious than the disease. “Please, I swear—”

“No, don’t swear. Let it go. Listen to me,” she said and placed her bloody hands on Garros’ hairy face. “Listen. Baby? Listen.
Let it go
. We’re going out there, together. We’ve fought those things before. Please stop thinking that something will happen to me. Nothing will happen to me. Remember. Remember this?”

Garros had begun to cry; his jaw was quivering. Ezra had never seen him cry, and he wondered if this pessimistic fear and anxiety for Erin’s life was truth, or just the result of extreme proximity to the Asili.

“We stick together. We’ll be okay,” she said, and did the gesture with her hands: her two fists bumping together, then thumbs up. “Say it, baby. Say it: we stick together—?”

“Stick together—we’ll be all right,” Garros said, and repeated the motion.

She nodded. “Thank you. Let’s go out there.”

Seeing Milos Ravana fight was poetry written in light. Ezra didn’t understand when Akiva developed his ability to fight; it was like every time he saw Milos Ravana in action, he had become faster, stronger, and more capable of wielding the light at its core.

Ezra was the third in a line of four. When the doors back to Clairvert proper opened again to the display of vicious destruction and death, they had to risk running to the outside, where the Creuxen waited for them.

“He destroyed the atrium!” yelled Jena. “The monsters are coming in!”

Ezra knew there were still Flecks left in the planet; they had been too optimistic in thinking otherwise.

Akiva could sense their presence. When they began their run towards the exit, they could see Milos Ravana turning towards them. With carefully planned motions, the giant suit of armor ran closer, slicing Troopers and crushing Carriers in the way.

Still, he didn’t feel safe. The creatures had also seen them, and were intent on destroying them. He crashed against Jena when one of the Troopers jumped in front of them so quickly it was as though it had materialized on their way. The monster roared so loudly it made his ears ring. Jena fell back.

The creature suddenly exploded in a shower of dark gore.

He didn’t have time to understand how Akiva was doing it; he had to run. Ezra helped Jena up and ran, now flanked by Garros, who was too busy trying to be Erin’s second set of eyes.

They ran past the city square, past the pillar which still stood, dodging and ducking to avoid getting hit by the blasts of light and the rain of debris.

They reached the atrium. “No—no!”

There was a line of large Troopers waiting for them. One of them roared and slammed giant fists on the floor. The entire cave shook.

“Watch out!”

Massive pieces of broken rock were falling from the ceiling, cracked by Milos Ravana’s forced entry into Clairvert. One piece fell mere yards away from them and shattered into hundreds of small shards. Another piece snapped off the ceiling and crushed one of the Troopers.

It would all come down if the battle didn’t end.

“This way!” Ezra yelled, and led the way to the far end of the atrium, to a hidden tunnel Malachi had shown him. “Through here!”

The others didn’t question him and took the miraculous way past the roadblock of monsters at the gates of the city. He was panting, barely able to stand. He helped Garros keep his balance when it looked like he might faint. “We’re almost there!” yelled Erin.

Ezra emerged at the other side. Nandi was just one sprint away.

Everything was an echo when that sprint began. They could only hope Akiva had seen them disappear into the small tunnel and would cover them—

Jena’s Jade Arjuna is the farthest away.

—or they might not make it.

Light was dim; sound was far. He wasn’t seeing with his own eyes or running with his own legs; he was seeing Ezra Blanchard run, avoiding death, surrounded by his friends. It wasn’t him who took a strategic turn to avoid a deadly claw. It wasn’t him who expertly climbed up the Creux’s armored shin. It wasn’t him who gave one last look at the mouth of Elena’s refuge, to see that she wasn’t in sight.

He was his spirit, far away from the proceedings, temporarily safe.

Besoe Nandi welcomed him like an old friend.

You have been missed.

You too, friend. You too.

Evil needs to be destroyed.

Life needs to be protected.

Nandi laughed. He felt safe again.

For every body a soul. For every Creux a pilot.

Let’s do this.

One of the Troopers also had horns, and that was Nandi’s first victim. Ezra raised Nandi’s hands and shot a blast of energy that hit the thing in the knee. It fell with a painful howl. Nandi’s fingers curled around the monster’s horns and spread them apart. Blood hit Nandi’s large eye.

Ares charged like a raging animal and pushed two equine Troopers out of the way. He put the entirety of his weight on his steps and crushed them under his feet.

There was anger in all of them. They had fought Flecks before, but never with such violence. Ezra ignored Nandi’s warnings:
Mind yourself, mind your power
.

Erin’s Phoenix Atlas took a smaller Trooper from the arm and slammed him against the atrium wall. The thing fell broken but alive. A piece of rock snapped off the top and crushed its head.

“
Careful
!” Garros yelled into the comms. “
It’s not stable
!”

Done with the roadblock of monsters, the team ran inside to support Akiva.

When Ezra heard Nandi’s displeased growl, he knew that Jade Arjuna had positioned herself behind him. He raised Nandi’s left arm to give her stability, and pooled the energy between his horns, feeling it tingle like electricity throughout his fleshy body.

Monsters charged to attack them, but fell one body length away from Nandi when the massive arrows shot through Nandi’s horns destroyed them; those who remained on their feet met Nandi’s right fist and stood no more.

They were an unstoppable juggernaut, could read each other’s movements with incredible efficiency; they had never shared this much chemistry in battle.

With Jade firmly placed upon its large back, Ezra moved Nandi towards the doors. The Troopers didn’t learn from their attacks. One after another they ran to fight him. After the second or third in line, Ezra mastered the cadence of their attacks and Jade’s arrows. There was elegant rhythm to the way he anticipated how the creatures would fall so he could land a devastating, final blow.

“Where are the carts!” Ezra yelled into the aural link.

“Under the wooden decks!” Erin yelled. “Move them out! Do it!”

A few feet below the entrance to the tunnel that led to the chapel, hidden from sight behind a particularly tall hut, there was a large tarp. He removed the tarp and saw two large crates hidden beneath. The wheels at the bottom let him know that these were the carts built to transport the citizens far from the city.