[Warbinger Returns Arc]

Chapter 10

The Final Cross

Geoff cocked his head, as a vent panel near the ceiling popped off and clattered to the floor. Toy Guy slid out and rolled onto the ground, while everyone watched him with raised eyebrows. Jaded Friar laughed heartily, but President Jasmine looked less impressed with her hands balled together on the mahogany table.

“What are you doing in the vents, Mister Hampton?” Jasmine asked him.

Toy’s head swivelled around the room, taking in each person there. “Streets are stuffed like a holiday turkey Miss President.” he answered, fiddling with something on his mechanical arm. He withdrew two devices the length of his hand, and laid them on the table before her. ”One is a radio detonator on the you-know-what frequency, the other needs to be connected to the phone lines.”

Each detonator had a green light on it. Toy Guy pointed to one. “Bomb is armed, green as go.” He indicated another bulb below the green one that was dark on both detonators. “Orange light means the detonator will work, basically. It has a connection. The phone one is obviously not hooked up on this end, but…” He tapped the dark bulb. “Well, the radio doesn’t seem to work.”

“It’s a good thing you had time to prepare both.” Jasmine said, taking the phone detonator and turning it over in her hand.

Toy shrugged. “They’ve been fighting that thing for awhile.” He noticed Lamet. “Does that alien understand us, or was it us that can’t understand her?”

“I understand you.” Lamet said.

Toy nodded.

Jasmine set down the detonator carefully and looked over everyone in the room. Her gaze lingered on Lamet. “As always, it’s nearly impossible to know that the decision we make is the right one, but we have to start somewhere. That will be—”

The ground shook. Toy swiped the detonators off the table as they began to rattle. Geoff and Lamet stumbled to the ground as cracks webbed along the walls. The door frame snapped at the top and the door swung open half way before the shattered ground caught it and wedged it stuck. Paint flaked from the walls and dust puffed from the vent.

Just as the rumbling began to subside a horrible screech unimpeded by the walls or distance assaulted their ears. Geoff curled into a ball, clutching his ears in his hands. It was like claws scraping off the edges of his mind. He felt his thoughts spilling out to be devoured by the black titan that haunted their world.

He lay on the carpeted floor, his vision spinning as the ground stopped shaking and the air quieted.

“Please tell me that it wasn't just me.” Jaded Friar groaned.

Geoff rolled his head over. Jade, Lamet and Toy were picking themselves off the ground on unsure legs. “I was gonna ask the same thing.” As he stood up, he saw Jasmine and Gunhilda were still in their chairs, but Jasmine had the arms of her seat in a white-knuckled grip.

Gunhilda picked up a briefcase off the floor and laid it on the table.

“Yeah.” Jasmine sighed. She slid the case in front of her and clicked it open. Using a thumb to leaf through the documents inside, she withdrew one and laid it on the table. “Final Authorization it is.”

Gunhilda drew a pen out of her suit jacket and clicked it open. Both Presidents signed the order quickly.

“Ideally we would have all three signatures for something like this,” Jasmine said, “but the Prime Minister doesn’t have the pleasure of being in Hometoll right now.”

“What we need is a more reliable way to communicate with the other Pillars.” Jade said. “Toy?”

“Let me see,” he replied. He began swivelling the dial on the side of his head. It made his eye twitch and his eyebrow raise. “Deilitus. Deilitus, come in. Deilitus this is Guy Hampton, private channel do you copy?”

Suddenly Toy was making a static sound with his mouth that sounded nearly like the real thing. He imitated Deilitus’s voice convincingly as she responded. “Toy? Thank… your channel still works. Listen, we lost… tower in that… quake. It is… the city… Husky Tantrum… down.”

In his own voice, Toy replied, “Final Authorization acquired, can the Pillars evac Central Hometoll?”

“Just… can’t m… Just kill us.” came Deilitus’s voice. “Just set it off. We can’t make… inger is…tral Hometoll. Just… us… peat, Warbinger is Central Hometoll.”

“Blow it up.” Jasmine commanded. Toy Guy flicked the cap off the detonator and slammed the button with his thumb. Nothing happened; it had no connection. He discarded it on the table.

“There must be another way.” Geoff begged, leaning against the table. He wasn’t even fond of the Pillars, but they couldn’t just throw them away. They had to, but he hated it. He hated… he slammed his fist on the table.

Jasmine shook her head. “There is a phone line in the corner, Mister Hampton.”

Toy walked over to it and disconnected the phone. He clicked the phone line into the detonator, and then ran another wire from it to the phone itself. He dialled some numbers into the phone.

“Geoff Friction,” Jasmine continued. “I don’t know what it looks like out there, but I know what Deilitus said. She would not throw their lives away if there was another option. I want you to take Lamet and Toy, and go with Gunhilda to this machine she says might rip this hole open. If there is anything you can do to help, you do it.”

The command in her voice was absolute.

Everyone paused to look at Toy Guy as the orange light flickered on on the second detonator.

“Do it.” The President commanded.

He pushed the button. The light went out. The tension in the air made it hard for Geoff to breathe. His palms were sweating on the table.

“What… waiting for?” said Toy Guy, in Deilitus’s voice.

The orange lit back up, and Toy pressed it again. “We hit it, Deilitus.” he said. “We hit them both.”

“Then we are doomed,” came Deilitus’s voice.

Lamet stepped over to Geoff and touched his forehead. For a brief flash of a moment he saw himself standing against the table. Words appeared in his head that weren’t his, echoing the ones she spoke out loud. “This is a spell of the Rite of Sharing called Thoughtshare. Our minds will be as one, for a while, so take care what you think too clearly. Go and aid them, I will seek out the Pillars.”

Lamet rose off the ground and vanished.

/

She appeared on a slanted rooftop in Central Hometoll, or what remained of it. The city was shattered like broken glass, every crooked piece resting at a jarring slant. Warbinger’s monstrous form hovered low above the city. His lower half was open, spilling coils like intestines across the town. They filled the ruptured cracks with slime and poison. The ground pulsed with his energy as he syphoned the life of the Earth.

If they could not stop him from devouring Earth, then Oval would fare even worse.

Lamet was nearly out of spells, but she would have to use what she had. She still had most of her offensive ones, but only a Lightweaver could save them now, anyway. She cast Flight on herself by drawing a feather in the air. A clumsy spell she was not fond of.

Deilitus mentioned losing a tower, and the only towers that she knew of were the one the woman called Longhorn resided in, and the guard tower. She scanned the crooked wedges of the cityscape.

One notable pile of rubble, scorched and burned and piled higher than the others, she recognized as the remains of the structure the humans called Unity. From there her gaze followed the long road south until she found the toppled tower.

She marked it by spying it over the tip of her outstretched finger, and her Flight spell pulled her through the air. She shot along an arched path like an arrow until she approached dangerously near one of Warbinger’s slacked tentacles. It slithered in the cracked cement of a ten-metre high protrusion in the ground, hanging in coils like discarded sausage over the edge.

She lowered her finger and immediately stopped and fell gently to the ground in the shadow of Warbinger’s limb. Every few seconds the tentacle squelched, sucking life from the Earth and shaking the ground while gobs of acrid slime dripped onto the ground. The eyes dotting its surface watched her as she approached the rubble, but it did nothing to act against her.

The orb that had been the tower’s top was cracked open like an egg in the street. She neared the large triangular gap in the broken wall carefully. With her back to the wall, she listened to the darkness within.

Geoff, she thought loudly, Central Hometoll is broken, I have never seen such devastation.

Squelching came from within the wall.

Wh–Lamet? came Geoff’s thoughts in her mind. Lamet leaned partially into the hole and released a Firelamp spell by drawing a vertical circle with her finger and then poking a hole in the centre. A fiery orb roared to life before her and shot into the room, filling it with hot air and flickering light. It hung under a slanted section of broken floor… or ceiling, she could not tell.

Central Hometoll is gone. The roads are destroyed, and the ground is broken. It is Warbinger’s now, and he feeds on the Earth through the cracks. she thought.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

How long does that give us?

I do not know.

Within the ruined chamber of the tower top, a wide crack across the entire floor pulsed with dark force. Tendrils snaked from the depths like roots seeking blood for nourishment. And some had found a prize. The limp body of a woman dragged on the ground, while the sickly tendrils squeezed her head and punctured her skin to sup her blood.

Lamet dashed into the room. Drawing a line through the air, she cast Ice Blade. It followed her path and slashed the tendrils apart, but the severed ends in the woman’s body wriggled in her skin.

The body twitched and jerked, rising into a sit as the strands of Warbinger’s evil puppeted her in a cruel mockery of life. The tendrils around her head melted together and two crooked eyes appeared in the front, one much lower than the other.

With a fearful wimper of a sigh, Lamet swung her arm as if to splash through water and by her Splash of Ice spell, water did appear. As the torrent soaked the woman it froze solid, sealing her upper half and Warbinger’s sickly fingers in ice. The woman fell back, the ice clacking against the ground.

With a flick of her finger the Firelamp fell into the pulsing crack. High-pitched squeals of pain came with the sizzling and popping of black flesh. She framed the Firelamp in a circle of her fingers, and broke the circle to detonate her spell and drown the deep cracks in flame.

Lamet took the ice in both hands and dragged the woman out into the daylight. By the Rite of Vitality, she could tell the woman was alive, but she would not be for long. She dispelled the ice and it splashed to the ground in a pool of water. The tendrils curled sluggishly from the chill.

She snapped her fingers and lightning crackled across her hands. She discharged one into the black mass covering the woman’s face. It bubbled and dripped from her face, splashing into the pool around her. Lamet quickly then touched the woman between her breasts. Her body twitched, and worms of black sludge squeezed out of her skin and dropped to the ground.

With her hands under her arms, she quickly dragged her away from the squirming puddle. Standing straight, Lamet extended a hand and blasted the sludge to ash with a Lightning Arc. It formed a muddy goop with the water, but as she could see, it had lost its dark power, so she paid it no further mind.

The woman at her feet breathed raggedly as Lamet knelt beside her. She was plump and pretty, but being drained by Warbinger had made her look sickly. She hummed the song of healing and placed a hand upon her, swaddling her in a warm glow. Some colour returned to the woman’s face, and her eyes opened slowly.

“How do you feel?” Lamet asked.

“Lamet?” the woman said quietly. It was Longhorn, then. She touched her forehead to Share the Rite of Tongues and her eyes fluttered for a moment.

When they opened, Lamet asked again. “How do you feel?”

Longhorn sat up, examining the dirt and dust on her form-fitting outfit. “Fine.”

She suspected Longhorn felt worse than she was willing to discuss, but she could not force her to speak openly. “If you are well enough to walk, then I must go and seek out the others. South Hometoll is safe for now.”

Longhorn nodded gratefully, a nervous smile on her face. She tested the strength of her legs before turning and walking away with a bit of a limp. Lamet aimed with her finger and shot into the sky.

Geoff, she thought, I have rescued Longhorn, and will seek out Deilitus next.

/

Thanks Lamet, he thought. He hoped she didn’t hear everything in his head. “Lamet managed to save Longhorn and she’s looking for the others now.” Geoff repeated. It was just Toy Guy and Gunhilda with him in the elevator, and neither of them desperately needed the information, but Toy Guy at least was as relieved as Geoff to know no one was being left behind.

It was a large freight elevator, and the only one—according to Gunhilda—that entered the secret Martyrsmith research laboratories below the city. Lights every ten metres or so in the elevator tunnel lit them up as they descended, and in the light Geoff could see Toy idly fiddling with his arms. This deep beneath the ground, not even the powerful radio in Toy’s head could reach the outside.

The elevator slowed and stopped with a shaky thud, and Gunhilda led them off. It was a concrete room full of shelves stacked unreasonably high with crates that Geoff could only guess at the contents of.

Toy Guy said, “Is this, uh…”

“I wouldn’t look too closely at anything if I were you.” Gunhilda said with a grin and a playful raising of her eyebrows.

Geoff had signed her non-disclosure form, and he had no intention of breaking it, so he squinted at all the labels of the boxes trying to figure out what was in them. But even when something was laying plainly on a shelf, he had no idea what it was. Just a warehouse full of parts and materials for their machines, he assumed. He really didn’t believe Gunhilda was going to let a grunt like him walk into anything too secret.

Gunhilda’s employees had notably mixed reactions as they crossed the warehouse. Some gave her a polite nod and greeting, without stopping their work, but a few took obvious detours to stay out of her way. The difference between respect born from admiration, and respect born from fear, he supposed.

They stopped at a pair of steel double doors that looked to be without any flaw or imperfection. There was a computer on the wall with a keypad and a screen, but Gunhilda ignored it.

“Gunhilda Winding and two guests.” she said. The doors slid smoothly into the walls without a sound.

Toy Guy looked at Geoff with a nodding expression that said he was impressed.

Gunhilda addressed them without turning her head. “This place is nothing like the workshops where we built your arms, Guy Hampton. Prepare to be impressed, and remember to keep your mouths shut about it.”

The corridor was pristine white with black corners. Lab workers strolled the wide hall in long clean coats or occasionally, full-body hazardous material suits with sealed domes over their heads. He imagined they worked with radioactive energy sources, or something.

It was a long walk before they reached another set of doors that Gunhilda commanded to open for her. They stepped inside. It was an empty three-metre by three-metre room. The walls, ceiling and floor were so white that Geoff couldn’t tell where the illumination even came from.

The door shut behind them, and Gunhilda spoke. “Hangar four.” She stood straight with her arms crossed behind her back and looked at him. “Geoff Friction.” Her voice was strong as steel, and carried as much weight. Her attention made him nervous. “I heard your partner Richard Elliot was taken to the other world—Oval, was it?”

Geoff nodded. “That’s our best guess, yeah. That he moved there just like Lamet moved here.”

“People are strongest when there are stakes.” she said. “That’s why I’ve allowed you to come here. We’ll all be at our best today, because Earth depends on it, but you’ve got Richard to bring back from the other world. That puts you one notch above my own soldiers for testing potential.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Richard said. Testing?

The white doors opened to a massive chamber that Geoff could barely see from where he was, but there was a bit of natural light filtering down from slits high up. He hadn’t even felt that room move. What direction had they gone in?

“It isn’t as bad as it sounds, probably.” Gunhilda laughed. “We don’t test on humans lightly… although, these are unfortunately dire circumstances, aren’t they?” Her toothy grin gave him the chills.

They followed her into the hangar, across a high platform that provided ample view of the room below. There was a single incredible machine, the size of one of the Leviathan’s massive train cars. But it was angular despite its blockiness, and had enormous horizontal cylinders on the back like giant exhaust ports.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Gunhilda said, admiring her own creation. “A machine to surpass my husband’s Leviathan Train, not in scale, but in scope.”

“What, uh… what is it?” asked Toy Guy.

“It’s beautiful.” she said plainly. “And has nothing to do with our mission today, so I’ll be taking no further questions at this time.”

At the edge of the hangar they descended a long iron staircase to the bottom, and then followed Gunhilda to another sealed door. Two armed guards covered head to toe in jet black armour stepped aside as she walked through. The room was dark except for the blue and green lights flashing on machines Geoff couldn’t otherwise see, and a dozen horizontal red lights, all one above the other.

Gunhilda slammed her hands together, and the resulting clap triggered the lights with a loud thunk.

A rectangular black tower rose from the clean white floor in front of him. Deep grooves ran the entire circumference of the monolith, and from top to bottom spaced every half-metre. Red light pulsed within them.

“Do we get to know what that is?” Toy asked, his eyes wide.

Geoff knew his awe-stricken face was a reflection of Toy's.

“This gorgeous creation is the most powerful machine ever designed!” Gunhilda exclaimed with her arms raised high. “The Martyrstone!” her laugh echoed throughout the chamber.

“For years… years I shed blood and sweat toiling over this machine! Tweeking the stupid algorithms to make it go where I want. To send me anywhere. Don’t you see? I could go back and rescue Forgeron moments before his death. And while the past would remain unchanged, I would have him here with me. We would be together…” Her legs wobbled until she fell to her knees. “We would be together.” Tears poured down her cheeks. Her head tilted back and her eyes locked on the Martyrstone, pleading. “F…Forgeron.”

Geoff watched her quietly, unsure what to do. He could imagine how devastated he would be if he lost his wife. He told himself he understood. But after ten years, he had not expected this from Gunhilda.

And nothing could have prepared him to be standing at the base of a time machine. But clearly, something had gone wrong.

“It didn’t work.” she sobbed.

Geoff was beginning to understand the real secret she wanted to keep quiet. Her grief, her mourning. He tried to imagine what Rick would do, and sat down next to her. Rick wouldn’t look down on someone who was suffering.

“It never worked.” she continued. “I’ve had to accept that no matter what I do, I can’t… I can’t save him.” She wiped her eyes dry. “But I haven’t reached a dead-end. It brought me closer to something else. Something I plan to use to make my husband’s magnum opus all the better. Train stations that can teleport the Leviathan Train across the world. That’s what the Martyrstone does.” She put her hand on Geoff’s shoulder, and used him to push herself to her feet.

The Stone was housed in a deep pit with a glass barrier all around. He stood up and followed her to it.

“That thing must be three storeys tall.” Toy Guy said, running a hand through his hair.

Gunhilda’s confident tone was returning. “It’s as big as it needs to be.”

“How does it help us?” Geoff asked. “Will it teleport us to Oval and back?”

She approached a terminal and withdrew a heavy card from within her suit. It made a heavy click as she pushed it into a slot and the terminal lit up. She started pushing the large buttons on it, and Geoff tried not to watch too closely.

“Normally, no.” she answered, tapping determinedly. “It can transport people and things between two distant places, but the only reason we can even think of interacting with Oval is because a connection is already there. In fact, I bet Spring Station’s Martyrstone is exactly why the connection is so strong there.”

As she entered her commands into the terminal the Martyrstone’s grooves changed to blue.

“There’s a Stone in Spring Station already? That’s uh…”

“A surprise? Indeed.” Her toothy grin returned. “I planned ahead and have been working on this project for a very long time. I believe we can reprogram that stone to enforce the connection and regain control of the Train. Then we should be able to travel freely between the worlds. That’s how we’ll fetch a Lightweaver.”

Geoff smiled. He finally knew the plan. Rick could come home soon, and they’d kill that monster in Central before it did any more harm.

Gunhilda pulled the card from the terminal and handed it to him. He accepted it, but raised his eyebrows at her, more than a little confused.

“I hope you’re ready, Geoff Friction. If you want to rescue Richard Elliot, I’m going to have to send you to that train.”

Geoff stared at the Martyrstone as he began to fill with anxiety.

The familiar voice of Lamet spoke in his thoughts. The Pillars are saved. We have lost a guardsman, and I found a few of your Defence Force slain as well, but I saw few other signs of death or life. It seems the evacuation has gone quite well.

That would be… decent news, Geoff replied, if we could set off the bomb.

Yes… Lamet sounded worried. On that subject, is it painful to report that… It seems Warbinger has taken the Final Cross.