Chapter 77: Earth, Wind and Fire, Part 11

Sylvester opened his mouth to ask where the hell they had come from. Any human being should have an interest in cooperating even with their most hated enemy even in a situation like this, but the trio he had run into unexpectedly didn't even wait for a single syllable to leave his lips.

In the blink of an eye, he found his right arm frozen against a car, pinning the sword against the metal.

The woman with the staff... No, it wasn't a staff, rather a fucking magical staff. She was the one who had done this to him. She hadn't disabled him at all, in his current condition he should be able to break the ice with hardly any effort, but it was still annoying.

The one with the daggers lunged at Heather. She was fast, you had to admit, but it didn't do her any good because she was also weak. Heather deflected her blows and sent her flying easily. Too easily, even.

Had she even survived...?

"Yonah!" the other woman shouted.

Yonah, huh? Had she even survived the first blow? They were not a threat, in any case. That's why they probably wouldn't be of much help either, but the fight between them was just a waste of time and effort. It shouldn't take more than a glance at the sky to know that they had bigger problems to worry about in every sense of the word.

"Heather, stop!"

She halted in the middle of the attack without asking questions, which allowed the horned boy to cleanly impale her with his sword. He glanced at her sideways, he couldn't believe it, lowering her guard. Understandable. To a certain extent.

"We're not enemies," said Sylvester. "And before you say something stupid, you attacked first."

He broke the ice, freeing his arm and weapon with it, effortlessly.

The horned boy slowly withdrew the sword from Heather's body, then looked at the woman who was accompanying him, there a silent conversation took place. The woman ran towards where Heather had sent the other one. She would have to look for her among the rubble of a wall. Alive or dead.

It was subtle, but they didn't seem worried that she had died or could die, only that she was injured. For some reason, he had that clear feeling.

In any case, at least they were willing to talk. Even if the woman had died, this didn't have to end in blood, when they were drowning in a million other problems.

Their clothes were probably so different, old, because they came from another world. So their universes were competing for survival. But that didn't matter. Now they were here, and they would die with the rest if they didn't cooperate. Anyone should understand something so simple.

The magic staff woman found the other, dragging her out of the rubble. She was unconscious, bleeding, panting in pain. Very weak. It had only taken one blow to achieve that, so he doubted she was a Champion, even one just starting her development.

Sylvester hesitated only seconds later when he saw how Yonah was healed by the other woman, as she waved the staff and set some kind of energy in motion. Healing. It wasn't as great a skill as it might seem. If you needed to be healed, you couldn't regenerate.

It was obvious that he would choose any if they had the opportunity, but they were not as weak as he had initially thought, that was the case.

There was something special about them.

Or maybe anyone could learn to do something like that in their world. How was he to know?

The horned boy (perhaps he was a man, but his appearance made him seem younger than he was) sheathed his sword, but took a step back, still cautious.

"We can cooperate," said Sylvester.

"Of what use will we be when you have defeated us in seconds?" asked the horned boy. "But I'll do whatever you want if you get them out of the city. We tried to escape, but a strong wind dragged us back."

Like them.

Seeing that the cavalry had entered the city so easily, he had wondered if the wind would only affect the Champions or something like that. But the boy's companions clearly were not Champions, perhaps he hadn't seen him fight enough to know.

Maybe the wind barrier only existed to keep people inside, not to prevent entry.

Be that as it may...

"Caim!" Yonah and the other woman shouted, almost in unison.

"You've already seen the difference in power. I'm not even sure I can survive here, so..."

"But..." The woman gripped the staff until her hands trembled.

"No buts! Victoria, Yonah. I know it's my fault. I know I've only made you suffer, but this is a new world where we can be free... There's only a little more. You have to let me do this."

Yonah and Victoria fell silent. Yonah could barely lift her head, despite the healing magic, but if she could, she supposed she would have looked away like Victoria. She knew the boy was telling them the truth. That it was better for them to stay out of it. That didn't mean they had to like it, but they were willing to go along with it.

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Sylvester contacted his people.

"I need an extraction vehicle. No, not for me. The nearest ship will do."

"Have you really contacted someone?" asked Victoria. Still kneeling, hugging Yonah. "How is that possible? There's no one here..."

"I have an artifact in my ear that allows me to communicate over long distances. If you don't believe me, wait a couple of minutes and you'll see."

"What kind of vehicle?" Caim asked.

"A flying one."

Caim fell silent. It was clear from his face that he didn't believe that was possible. But also that in the midst of fear and confusion, he clung to hope. Yes, thought Caim, they are not our enemies. They are just kids, after all. Frightened kids, looking for a place to belong. And they arrive right now, with the world falling apart. Oh well, a matter of bad luck.

The ship didn't take long to arrive. The three newcomers watched its descent in awe, even trembling.

He tried to imagine how it would feel to see something like that for the first time, living in a world so primitive that there were no aircraft, maybe not even cars, judging by their medieval-style clothing. He couldn't imagine it. Not even close.

He supposed the closest thing was when he saw the strange colors those trees projected, which violated the common sense of his world and burned the retinas.

Only the closest thing. A previously unsuspected new dimension assaulting your senses. The ship's hatch opened. Where there should have been Agents, there was nothing at all, all the seats empty, they had already unloaded the cargo. Well, it made sense. They had sent him an empty ship in every sense.

"Get on there," said Sylvester. "It's not dangerous at all."

He blatantly lied. He wasn't sure they would be able to leave the city, but even if he had told them the truth, they wouldn't have believed him. Human beings believe what they want to believe. No more, no less. And hope is the last thing to be lost, so most people cling to what suits them until the world kicks them in the mouth, forcing them to face the truth.

Anyway, he sincerely hoped they would be able to get out of this... Otherwise, Caim would become another problem to deal with, probably.

"Come on," Caim said, or rather ordered. "I like it as little as you do, but... on foot you won't get out of here. We've already tried. And the worst that can happen to you is that it falls."

"Yeah, it's not that bad," Victoria replied, rolling her eyes.

But she obeyed, walking next to Yonah, letting her lean on her shoulder. Yonah looked at Caim with glassy eyes. It probably had little to do with the physical.

In any case.

"Take care, okay? Once is enough."

Sylvester had no idea what she was referring to, but Caim nodded solemnly. Well, at least he understood the essentials. Caim had not really been dangerous not because he lacked the ability, but because he was tired of running, fighting, and being on the brink of death.

For obvious reasons, it was something easy for him to understand.

The door closed and the ship took off, he hoped it would reach its destination. He hoped it mattered, if it succeeded, whether there was an Earth planet left when this day ended. Because from these enemies there was no place to hide, no sir.

"What are you capable of?" Heather asked.

Instantly, more than a dozen tentacles like those of a mysterious deep-sea beast appeared all over her body. He wasn't going to bother counting them.

"I'll show you. Just tell me what I need to do, how we can put an end to... whatever this is."

The situation was already strange and overwhelming enough knowing the context. Caim and his group had stumbled into the chaos without more, they had no idea, they probably also didn't know the death match between the universes. They didn't seem at all sad to have left behind the world they had known, despite the current circumstances, but it was still difficult to digest.

Not to mention explaining it. He would have to explain it, guide them through this chaos.

He should start with the truth.

That he had no idea how to put an end to this shit.

***

Jonathan reached one of those things. They seemed to get bigger as he approached, no, in fact they were. The creature's mouth loomed over him. It was a bottomless abyss. It reminded him of the time he had almost been swallowed by a whale. He had come close to losing not just a leg, but everything below the neck.

He wasn't going to back down now that he had come so far.

He propelled himself into the bottomless abyss with another explosion. Maybe he would lose. Maybe, but in an instant he could get up and try again. That was the basis of his unwavering confidence. Even in a different world, he was convinced that the same rules applied. Only an immortal could kill another immortal. He didn't doubt it for a second.

Jonathan did not die.

But his consciousness expanded as if abandoning his body, and he wondered if he would be able to get up again after all.

His mind went blank.

His consciousness would not have survived everything that had forced its way through by other means. Those beings were not great. It was absurd to talk about size on the scale they were operating on.

The concept of different worlds was new to Jonathan, and even more so the concept of universes, but he understood it because he was forced to.

However large it may have seemed, the part he could see was insignificant. Those beings existed simultaneously in countless adjacent worlds.

They existed on a different plane. He could not simply approach and beat the problem until it disappeared. He had been naive to think it would be so simple.

It kept expanding. His consciousness expanded to infinity, just as his insignificant life had done from the moment he found that island.

Eternity. A story without an end. But the eternity he spent in that state, absorbing information that a human brain was not designed to receive, came to an abrupt and violent end.

Jonathan fell.

——

Something fell from the skies like a black star. A human figure that was undoubtedly...

"There," Sylvester said. "That's where we need to go."

He sounded calm, but was anything but that. Jonathan had seemed invincible. What could have made him fall? Would he even still be alive? He could certainly survive the fall without a problem, but he couldn't say the same for whatever had thrown him in the first place.

There was nothing he could do about it anyway. Not anymore. Sylvester continued forward with his group without voicing his anxiety. Such feelings were nothing more than anchors that would drag him to the bottom of the sea and ensure he drowned. He had to get rid of useless things like that.

Jonathan could be alive, he could be dead. It didn't matter. He had never needed anyone else to triumph.

He had protected the planet alone for a decade.

Nothing had changed. Except that he had become even stronger.

If he couldn't do it, no one could. That was the truly worrying thing, not Jonathan's condition.

He didn't know where Ryan and Cynthia were, but he would have to trust that they were managing. Even though both of them could fly, he was keeping up with them relatively easily, propelling himself up to twenty meters with a single leap using his tentacles. He wasn't far behind them, even though they could both fly.

He was certainly a powerful Champion. A first-class monster.

Of course, nothing compared to Jonathan, but that wasn't a fair comparison. He was glad to have him as an ally. Another ally who had fallen from the sky when he needed it most.

He was grateful, but Heather had been the first. He would not depend on Caim, on Jonathan, or on anyone.

He didn't know how the hell they would do it, but they would win together.

And one day, the endless tragedies would be nothing more than a distant memory. Sylvester had something to fight for. To give Heather a normal life, a human life.

To grant her most desperate wish, to fill her deepest void.

That they shared.

Sylvester just wanted to be human again. Not even those beings could interfere with his path. He would not allow it.

Earth, Wind and Fire, Part 11: END