Young Sophia had no way of knowing that her decision at a playground would determine the fate of her life, but it was the truth. Most kids picked the slides or the swings, but she had chosen the monkey bars. She loved the feeling of just hanging over the edge, not being able to feel her feet on the ground. But right now, Sophia was just really grateful for the upper body strength they had provided.
Her fingers went red immediately as she clutched onto the side of the platform, she screamed as she felt the lower part of her body begin to dangle off the edge. Right now, Sophia was leaning off the side of Tallizumdul and hanging on for dear life. Below her she could see dozens of Hellilifts floating in the air, fleeing the scene that was occurring above her. She wished that she could drop down on top of one of them like they do in the movies, but if she did that her whole body would become very pancake-like. “Help me!” She called out, hoping anyone could hear her over the sound of a screaming planet.
Above her everyone struggled to stand up, the guard who had been wrestling with Neil had passed out from his injury and lay unmoving on the ground. “Sophia!” Alex screamed as he started to run to the cliffside, wondering why in the hell this mountaintop was structured so unsafely.
Zerat-Mondul, with a little streak of blood coming from his forehead, intercepted Alex and pointed his blade towards his face. “Your False Goddess is gone!” He said, a sour glint in his eyes. “Let her fall below, where she belongs!”
Alex backed away, but then remembered something. Quickly he spun around and grabbed the sword the underpaid guard had left behind. He raised it and met the Royal Guard’s blade, placing a hand on his back. “En-garde, vile fiend!” He shouted, like how they did in all the stage shows he had seen.
He quickly regretted his decision as Zerat-Mondul let loose his lifelong experience of the blade. Alex was utterly outmatched; he was like a kid with a pool noodle fighting a savage bear. The blades sparked as he desperately attempted to block, but not all were successful. “AH!” Alex cried as he was cut across the chest- his tie sliced in half. The injury wasn’t deep, but it was enough to bring tears to his eyes instantly.
Hearing Sophia’s cry, Neil started over to help but the guard with the scar had other plans. He reached out and grabbed the boy's shin and pulled him back onto the ground. Neil struggled as the enraged man got on top of him and curled his fingers around his throat, choking the air out of his lungs.
Just like all his other friends had done, Timothy instinctively started toward Sophia. However, he stopped when he heard both Alex and Neil cry out- Alex a howl from a cut and Neil a desperate squeak as the life drained from his face. All three of his friends were in danger, the problem was there was only one of him to help them- which if you do the math means someone was out of luck. He bit his lip, his mind racing.
“Sophia!” He screamed; his choice was made. “I’m sorry but hang on!”
His legs carried him over to where Neil was being held down and strangled, his face had already turned purple. Now Timothy had never been in a fight in all of his life, that is unless you count all the times he got beat up in the orphanage- though he never fought back then. But right now, he decided that learning how to do this ‘violence’ thing was the only way he was going to help his friends. So, with a grim look in his eyes, he grabbed the scarred guard’s head. “I’m so, so sorry!” He declared as he plunged his fingers into all three of Quiludian’s eye sockets.
The guard screamed, as one does when this situation happens, and fell onto his back. Neil breathed a joyous breath, coughing as he rolled over onto his side to recover. Timothy didn’t want to think of what he had just done, or the slimy feel on his fingertips, so instead he focused on running over to Alex.
The sword fight, once full of satisfying clangs and bangs from the swords, had mostly devolved into a chase as Alex ran for his life. “Coward!” Shouted Zerat-Mondul, taking a wild swing. Although Alex wasn’t a psychologist, he could tell by the look on his chaser’s face that he had gone crazy- bloodlust does that to a person.
Sophia felt her grip loosening, she didn’t have much time left.
“Hey, sir, please stop!” Timothy pleaded as he arrived at the scene. Unsurprisingly the crazed guard did not stop his assault and instead began swinging and stabbing even quicker. To be honest, Timothy had no clue what he was supposed to do in this situation, the man was clearly stronger, faster, and smarter than he was.
“Timothy!” Screamed Alex, his feeble sword just barely blocking a fatal blow to his chest. “The Force-Field! Use the Force-Field!”
Timothy listened to his friend and looked downwards at their feet, sure enough, the orbs still sat arranged in a line below them- Alex had positioned himself so that Zerat-Mondul was on the outside of the barrier. If he could figure out how to turn them on maybe he could separate the two. He dropped to his knees and examined the strange device, to him the thing only looked like a pale white globe with no obvious buttons or markings. It would be very convenient if there was an ‘on’ button somewhere, but it was clear that alien technology went with style over functionality.
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The fingers on Sophia’s hand began to slip, and she closed her eyes.
“Alex, I don’t know how it works!” Timothy shouted, panicked.
His friend was a little busy at the moment, “figure it out!”
“There doesn’t seem to be an on switch anywhere!”
Alex received a harsh slice across the cheek, “did you check under it?”
He checked under it, “nothing there!”
“Try twisting it!”
He twisted it, “it didn’t work!”
“Timothy!” Alex cried as the Guard, done with toying with his prey, twirled his blade around and flicked upward- disarming the sword right out of his opponent’s hand.
Sophia was trying her best to hang on, but her best wasn’t good enough in this situation. Her fingernails dug into the platform as her strength finally failed her and she began to fall. However, just before her life had the chance to flash her, someone grabbed her hand. She felt her arms strain as the person struggled to pull her up, however, she wasn’t going to complain about not falling to her death. Back safely on the platform, she looked up to see who her savior was and was shocked to see that Xulut-Indula stood before her- panting and out of breath.
In that deciding moment, Timothy did what we all would’ve done and roughly punched the orb with all his might. The device whirled alive, and the blue light of the Force Field started on, right in time to intercept the blade aiming for Alex’s throat. Zerat-Mondul was pushed back as his Oath-Blade bounced on the barrier, he scowled as he saw that his enemy had just alluded him. He cried out in a language the two had never heard before- which was a good thing because the Quiludian was clearly cursing at them.
Sophia and Xulut-Indula stepped back as the glow of the Force Field just shot barely around them, if they had moved any slower they would’ve been locked outside its range. “My Goddess, are you alright?” The Priestess asked, worried.
The girl tried her best to respond but the air wasn’t coming. Instead, she gave her rescuer a big thumbs up. The Quiludians had no concept of what a ‘thumbs up’ was, but the Priestess got the message.
“Guys, are we all okay?” Neil asked, looking around and rubbing his neck.
“No thanks to you guys.” Sophia remarked, breathily.
“Oh, sorry, I was too busy being strangled!”
The ground beneath them suddenly lurched and everyone was thrown off balance, the screaming planet’s cry grew somehow louder- they were barely able to keep their ears from popping. “Guys, that’s our cue to go!” Alex declared, running over to the group. “We have to get out of here!”
“But what about him?” Timothy pointed gingerly at the Royal Guard, who at the moment was pacing up and down the barrier like a lion waiting for its meal to arrive.
Sophia felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. “My Goddess,” the alien began. “Let me take care of this lost follower, as penance for my sin against you!”
“But you don’t understand, I’m not…” She started to explain but then realized that no matter what she said the Priestess would never believe her- the screaming planet was too damning of a proof. “Thank you.” She said instead, standing taller. “But how do we get down from here?”
Xulut-Indula walked over to Neil and grabbed his wrist, much to his confusion. “Watch.” She said as she began to manipulate his hands into strange and unorthodox patterns. “There is a Hellilift waiting for you over there on the mountain, this is the pattern use must use to activate it.”
“But what will you do?” Neil asked, desperately trying to remember the motions.
The Priestess smiled, “I will fight, good Disciple.”
Another tremor in the earth, they all knew that had to go now. The group exchanged glances as the Priestess walked over and took Alex’s sword up from off the ground. “Zerat-Mondul, you stand opposed to the Goddess herself, which is against everything you have ever been taught!”
“You mindless woman!” The guard retorted with a scowl. “Don’t you see that she isn’t the Goddess? She’s a liar, a Howlars in Exolamb’s clothing!”
She shook her head, “No, you’re wrong! Look around you, don’t you see that the Prophecy is complete?”
“This is the world ‘rejoicing and being plentiful?’ You’re mad!”
“No, I’m faithful! And if this is the will of the Goddess than it shall be!” With a mighty kick, the Priestess disabled the Force Field. “Run, Goddess in Green!”
Sophia, Alex, Neil, and Timothy all obeyed the command as they booked it towards where their Hellilift waited for them in the corner. Zerat-Mondul started towards them but was blocked by the Priestess. “Stand aside, you know that you cannot best me!”
“I do not need to best you, Royal Guard, I only need to delay you!” Xulut-Indula swung out, surprising her opponent and landing a stab in his shoulder.
The group could hear the sound of the swordfight behind them, but they kept moving. The mountain top had already changed drastically, the mighty platform that this place of worship had been built on was crumbling and falling- like frosting melting off of a cake. They arrived at the Hellilift; it was small but still had just enough room for all of them to clamber in. Neil closed his eyes and tried to remember the pattern he was taught.
“Hurry Neil!” Sophia pleaded as another violent tremor rocked through the planet.
The boy in the tattered coat moved his hands and surprisingly got it on the first try. The Hellilift roared into action and started to float downwards. Slowly the platform moved out of sight, and so did the two fighting Quiludians.
Unfortunately, the group would never know what happened on top of that mountain. They never knew that Xulut-Indula and Zerat-Mondul had fought tooth and nail until their final moments. But what they did see was that, just as the Hellilift left the side of Tallizumdul, the rock and ground that made up the mountain suddenly shook and collapsed. It was as if something was washing the cliffside clean and everything that Tallizumdul was made of, the platform, the trees and even the rock was being scrubbed off.
It was a harrowing sight, seeing something so massive just fall away like it was nothing. But even more disturbing was what took its place. Instead of a mountain, now there resting was a giant, fleshy thing. Muddy skin now sat where Tallizumdul once was, and it became clear that what they were seeing had been there the entire time. A similar thing was happening all around the city, the world itself was being peeled away like a mask- showing the truth that was buried underneath. The planet was alive, and it was shedding its skin.