Ryuuk had indeed heard raised voices coming from the main chamber.
Our corridor emptied out along the edge of the vast cavern at the center of Maluna’s Grotto. Several ledges rimmed the perimeter of the chamber at varying heights. Ours was about 15 feet from the bottom level and approximately 200 feet from the center of the cavern. There were plenty of rocky pillars supporting the ledges that offered cover for us to hide behind.
At the center of the room was a raised platform, and a six-foot-tall, blue crystal of some type stood in the center. The faint outline of an object inside the crystal was barely visible to me at this distance, but I knew it must contain the scepter. I suppose it was comforting to know it wasn’t just laying out on a rock for anyone to take.
Matthew stood on the center platform, arguing with Owen. The latter had taken the form we were all most familiar with, presumably because this was also the form Matthew would know. It was interesting to observe Matthew this way. Gone was the lack of confidence he had portrayed to us. Instead, he was demanding and insistent on the terms of his agreement with Owen.
We spread out behind various pillars along our ledge to listen in on their conversation. I glanced around the chamber as they talked, taking note of where I thought the Malunites might be hiding. Owen only had two Syreni guards with him, and there was no sign of Dick.
“For the last time, I’m not showing you the Diadem until I know you’ve got the changeling here and alive,” Matthew said forcefully. “You already know I have it. Your men saw the Malunites scramble when I took it.”
“And how do I know that you won’t just blink out of here with your prize and the Diadem,” Owen argued back. “You’re even more slippery to hold onto than I am.”
I knew the answer to that question, but I realized Owen didn’t. Matthew hadn’t told him that Dick couldn’t travel through his void portal unscathed. I wondered if Owen even knew why Matthew wanted Dick in exchange for the Diadem in the first place.
“Let me put it this way,” Matthew said, raising his hand palm up in front of him. As he did, two void tentacles emerged from the ground to wrap around Owen’s two bodyguards and strangle the energy out of them.
As they struggled, Matthew continued, “I’ll keep my part of the deal because I want to. That will have to be good enough for you. Otherwise, I’ll rip through every one of your men until I find him. Then the Diadem disappears from this planet forever, and you can all deal with that monstrosity circling around in the ocean outside.”
He dropped the two Syreni comatose on the floor.
Owen simply stared at Matthew for a long moment. I knew he must be seething; he wasn’t used to getting out maneuvered. From our conversations, Matthew would know that Owen’s strength lay in deception and diplomacy, but his major weakness was a lack of any real fighting abilities or skills. He relied on being able to outmaneuver and outsmart his opponent, to put himself in a more advantageous position over others.
“You’ll attempt to rip through these tunnels and find the changeling, I’m sure,” Owen said. “But not before my men put a hole in his head.”
This time it was Matthew’s turn to look uncertain.
“That’s right,” Owen continued. “You were very specific as to the condition you wanted him delivered. I may not understand why his acquisition is so important to you, but I know him being alive is crucial for your purposes.”
“Well, it seems we’re at an impasse,” Matthew said. “Maybe the changeling is no good to me if he’s dead; in truth, I have no idea. But he’s certainly no good to me if I’m dead.”
He turned and opened a portal, threatening to leave without handing over the Diadem. The two were playing a game of chicken. It was only a matter of seeing who would flinch first. I had a feeling it would be Owen, yet he held his ground as Matthew walked toward his portal.
“That won’t be necessary,” another voice interrupted.
It was a voice we recognized, and Koraf stepped from the shadows. Behind him, two of his men held Dick between them. I looked at my crew to see equal expressions of shock on their faces.
“What the hell?” I whispered, activating the coms the Malunites had given us.
It had been silent the whole time as ordered, but I assumed they had another channel they were communicating with to pull off whatever stunt was going on.
“Easy,” Griff said into the coms. “The plan is still the plan. Once the exchange is made, you’ll have your opportunity to get your guy back, but we can’t let that kid teleport out of here with the Diadem.”
“Sonofabitch,” Ryuuk spat. “They’re willin’ to use Dick as bait to get that damn crown.”
We all turned our shocked gazes at Ryuuk. It wasn’t like him to use such colorful language.
“I’m not surprised,” Cash said. “Never expect people to do the right thing when their own interests are on the line. Would we?”
“Hell no,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean we have to like it or stand for it.”
“Why don’t he just transform into that big ole’ rock thing?” Ryuuk asked.
“They must’ve done something to prevent him from changing,” Cash guessed. “That’s probably how they were able to get him in the first place. I bet Owen would know a trick or two for that.”
“Get ready,” Vomero said, nodding toward the center of the chamber again. “It’s about to happen.”
I nodded, glancing to check on Dick. He seemed subdued with his head down and arms pinned behind his back. I noticed just the slightest tilt of his head in our direction, however. Did he know we were here? How? It might have been my imagination from this distance, but I swore I saw the tiniest smirk on his lips.
“I have a counter to Matthew’s void sucker tentacles, so I will engage him directly,” I said quietly into our personal coms. “Vomero, focus on getting Dick clear. Cash, we’ll probably both need you to run interference where you can. Ryuuk, provide some cover fire but keep your eye on Owen. Make sure he doesn’t slip away in all the chaos. He’s not getting off that easy.”
Down on the center platform, things were getting interesting. Koraf presented Dick to Matthew.
“I’m not surprised the Syreni would try to go back on their part of a deal,” Koraf said to Matthew. “But I assure you, Malunites are not so loose with their commitments.”
“What do you want?” Matthew asked, warily, looking around the chamber walls.
We made sure to stay completely out of sight. From our vantage point, he wouldn’t be able to see us unless he had eyes in the back of his head.
He doesn’t have eyes in the back of his head, does he? I asked myself, then shook off that creepy thought.
“Simple, I want the same deal you gave the Syreni,” Koraf said. “This changeling for the Diadem, but unlike your shifty friend here, I am willing to present payment up front.”
With a nod from Koraf, the two Malunite operatives pushed Dick forward and to his knees in front of the short stack of stairs leading up to the center platform where Matthew stood.
“Fool!” Owen spat. He had backed away from the platform at Koraf’s arrival. More Syreni operatives emerged from the shadows to surround him. “You Malunites always did lack strategical common sense. Where is your leverage now?”
Owen motioned and five of the Syreni goons pointed their weapons at Dick.
“Thanks for saving the me the trouble of going to get him myself,” Owen sneered at Koraf, then turned to Matthew. “Keep our deal or I’ll put a hole in his head, Diadem be damned.”
In response, several Malunite enforcers emerged from their hiding places and levied their weapons at the Syreni in turn.
“It doesn’t really matter to me if I take the crown in a trade with you,” Koraf said to Matthew, “or from the Syreni by force. But I’m the only one offering you the deal you asked for, no extra strings attached, no threats.”
From my position, I could see Dick start to fidget uncomfortably.
“Looks like the sedative I gave him is starting to wear down,” Owen said. “Better make a decision soon or you’ll have to go capture him yourself.”
“Your beef isn’t my concern,” Matthew said. “Kill each other over the Diadem if you want, I’m taking what was promised me, though. And anyone who tries to rob me of it, won’t live to hold a crown, much less wear it.”
Back from my vantage point, I could see that we were indeed running out of time for this stalemate. Dick’s agitation was becoming more and more noticeable. I didn’t see a peaceful transfer happening any time soon, and I wasn’t willing to risk Dick being in the middle of the shit storm when it happened.
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"So, here’s how it’s going to work,” Matthew said. He walked over to Dick and grabbed him by the hair. A small void portal appeared and he reached inside it, and he pulled out the briefcase containing the Diadem. “I’ve got my payment. So, you guys can fight over this thing. I’m sure you’ve got bigger things to worry about than me.”
“What the hell is happening to him?” Koraf asked.
Dick’s chest had started to pulse with a warm amber glow. We knew what it meant, and Matthew surely knew, too.
“Ahhhh!!!” Dick cried in pain as the glow in his chest accelerated.
“Fuck this,” I whispered into my coms. “We tried it their way, now we do it ours. Cash, get ready to cover Dick. This could get dicey. Ryuuk, keep your eyes on Owen.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, knowing I would need to move fast and would only get one shot.
Archer, guide me.
In an instant, I summoned my light bow, fully drawn. Several people caught the spark of light as it materialized. Matthew, who now partially faced me, also caught a glimpse of it, or perhaps sensed the cosmic power channeled through it.
It was too late, however. My arrow was already loose, flying through the air with as much speed as I could channel into it. He had a split second to react, which saved his life, but the shot still hit its mark. The light arrow sliced cleanly through his wrist where it held Dick’s hair, allowing the changeling to throw himself back and away from Matthew’s grasp.
Matthew screamed in pain as the main chamber erupted into chaos. The Diadem case tumbled from Matthew’s good hand as he clutched his severed stump. Several Syreni and Malunite shots were lobbied in my direction trying to stop my attack. I ducked behind my stone pillar just in time to avoid them. Glancing back around, I could see the Syreni and Malunites open fire on each other. Hoping to secure the Diadem before the other faction.
Cash was already working. Pulling out Carla, he lobbed a few shots into both Syreni and Malunite operatives fighting too close to our teammate.
I summoned a light dagger and dug it into the side of my pillar, using it to slow my descent as I slid down to the main floor. Luckily, my approach was from the back of the center platform, whereas most of the fighting was concentrated toward the front.
The Malunites were using concussive weaponry in an attempt to disable the Syreni without doing major damage to the Scepter Chamber. The weapons had energy shields attached to the top that protected the wielder from head shots. The result was almost comical as the weapons sent bodies flying around the main chamber, each shot delivering a pulsing wave of force. It also made it hard to navigate across the room.
By contrast, the Syreni seemed unconcerned with maintaining the integrity of the chamber. Their weapons dealt more damage at devastating cost to the surrounding chamber. Their guns sprayed blasts of hot thermite that melted through the Malunite’s advanced shields and armor. Though the Syreni were outnumbered and outgunned, the Malunite’s liability of having to preserve the structural integrity of the Grotto left the two sides evenly matched.
As I crested the top of the center platform from the back, I caught a glimpse of Dick struggling on the floor. He had made his way up the platform in an effort to avoid the spray of weaponry flung around from both sides.
Syreni and Malunite operatives alike were rushing the platform trying to secure the Diadem, which had fallen out of its case on the platform floor. They were stopped in their tracks, however, by blasts from Cash’s rifle as he covered Dick’s back. Instead of throwing more people to their doom, the operatives were now actively trying to flush out Cash from his position, lobbing concussive and thermite blasts in his direction.
Matthew was nowhere to be seen, and I assumed he had blinked into cover somewhere nearby when I severed his hand. I cautiously made my way across the platform toward Dick, knowing Matthew would try to stop me if he could. As I reached his side, I could see he was sweating and panting heavily.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, checking over him for wounds. All I could focus on, however, was the pulse of light emitting from his chest.
His gaze, when it met mine, was bleary and bloodshot. He nodded toward the Diadem.
“It’s that damn thing,” Dick panted. “It’s like the thing from before but it’s happening in my goddamn chest!”
My eyes fixed on the Diadem, and I reached to pick it up, thinking to toss it away. As I did, however, a loud moan shook the cavern.
MMMMMRRRRRRRUUUUUUUAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Acheron must be agitated to be heard this deep. Moan after moan wailed through the cavern, temporarily drowning out even the sound of battle surrounding them.
Glancing back at Dick, I noticed his whole body now pulsed with glowing light.
“Oh shit,” I said, causing him to look at me with concern.
“Something’s coming,” Dick grunted in severe agony. “Back up.”
“No, I...” but he cut me off.
“Back the fuck up, Skye! I don’t know—Ahhh!!!”
The resonating sound I remembered from before, when it emerged from the containment chamber, started to hum softly, then quickly grow in magnitude. I took a few steps back, bumping into a Syreni operative who had snuck past the preoccupied Cash. Before I could react, however, the man convulsed as electromagnetic pulses racked his body. As his now unconscious body tumbled to the ground to reveal Vomero behind him, I nodded my thanks.
“What the hell is happening to him?” Vomero asked.
“He said something is coming,” was all I had time to explain before all hell broke loose.
The Diadem on the ground began to glow and hover in the air in front of Dick. The shining light encasing it seemed to grow brighter and brighter until the crown appeared to be made of solid light. It was almost painful to look at.
Acheron went crazy, the cavern shaking and rocks and stalactites falling all around as his wailing reverberated through the grotto.
Then, the glowing crown approached Dick’s chest, which was now pulsing with a rainbow of alternating light. As I watched, the crown seemed to dissolve into Dick’s chest, being absorbed just like the orb had done.
“Oh shit,” Vomero whispered. “That can’t be good.”
Then there was no sound. Only the ringing in my ears as an explosive force burst from Dick’s body, the light emitting from him truly too bright to look at. It was odd, the feeling I got as I turned my head away and shielded my eyes even as the explosion lifted me off my feet and sent me sailing through the air. It wasn’t that the light was blindingly bright, though it was extremely painful to look at. Instead, there was a sense that I wasn’t worthy to look upon such brilliance.
I landed with a hard thud on the stairs leading down the back of the platform and tumbled the rest of the way to the bottom. The whole cavern had grown eerily silent after the explosion. Even Acheron had ceased his wailing.
Slowly, I dragged myself back up the stairs until I could see the top of the platform once again. In the center, Dick lay motionless. I couldn’t tell at this distance if he was still alive and breathing. Next to him, however, was a creature I couldn’t help but stare at.
It was a captivating mix of humanoid and animalistic features. It was bipedal with the head and body shape of a small human child. That’s where the human resemblance ended, however. Large floppy ears shaped like wings graced each side of its head, and two spindly horns protruded from its temples at each side. The small, white horns had the knotty shape of twigs or small tree branches, and one was longer than the other. The creature seemed covered in a velvety, off-white fuzz that pulsed iridescent colors. Its legs looked human from the hip down to its calves, but the joints below the knee bent backward like the hind legs of a cat.
The entity, for I assumed this was what had been incubating inside Dick for the past month, lacked any gender specific anatomy. As I watched, it pushed itself up with its long, lanky arms covered in a mixture of feathers and fur. It stumbled to its feet like a newborn fawn taking its first step. Its face had sharp, pointy features except for the eyes, which were big and round like a doe’s.
My fixation on the strange creature was momentarily interrupted as Dick groaned behind it and shifted his body as if he was sore all over. The creature took a fumbling step toward Dick.
Matthew’s hand, the non-severed one, plucked it from its feet mid-step.
He had blinked in to grab the entity and was already attempting to summon a void portal. Apparently, Matthew wasn’t worried about the child surviving a void jump anymore. Dark void energy pulsed around the wounded hand to cauterize the bleeding, but he was having a hard time using it to activate his abilities. With the child thrashing in his one good hand, I launched myself at him, daggers drawn.
The child let out a gurgling cry as I knocked it free of Matthew’s grasp and tackled the void worshiper to the ground. In the background, I could hear the rumbling of the Malunites and Syreni trying to understand how the object they had been fighting for had been consumed by this child.
I didn’t have time to focus on that, however, as Matthew regained his composure and squared off for a fight on the platform.
In the back of my mind, I knew what conclusion the Syreni and Malunites would ultimately reach. Acheron had calmed down but could still be heard roaming around nearby. They would try to procure the child for themselves to control the beast.
Apparently, my team had figured this out, as well.
“Vomero, Ryuuk keep them off the platform,” Cash said, through the coms.
“Which ones?” Ryuuk asked.
“All of them!” he barked. “None of us are leaving this planet if either side gets their hands on the entity.”
“What about Matthew?” Vomero asked. I knew he was closest to my position. I hadn’t had time to check on him after the explosion and was relieved to hear he was okay.
“Leave Matthew to Skye,” Cash said.
As I engaged Matthew in hand-to-hand combat, I realized he had been sand-bagging his fighting skills slightly. Yet, he was still no match for the years of experience I had on him. From the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Dick pushing himself to his feet and transforming into his rock form to fend off the oncoming Syreni forces rushing him.
Refocusing on the task at hand, I pushed the sound of blaster fire and fighting from my mind and focused on the void walker in front of me. We traded blows, me landing a few swipes with my daggers and him attempting to grab me with one of his void tentacles. Wherever they brushed against me left a scorch mark on my skin. His void energy quickly sealed any cuts I made into him, but the sheer amount was starting to take a toll on his energy reserves.
“You can’t keep this up, Matthew,” I said. “You know I’ll win.”
“I thought we were friends, Skye,” he said in such a genuine tone that I almost believed him.
“Friends don’t try to kill each other,” I responded, dodging one of his dark energy blasts.
It slammed into the blue crystal on the platform, and I noticed that it had already been severely cracked from the earlier explosion. More pieces broke away, exposing part of the silver colored scepter within.
“I wasn’t specifically trying to kill you,” he retorted.
“Aww,” I said sarcastically, swiping at a tentacle. “That really is a special bond we have, then.”
“If you don’t get out of my way,” he said, growing frustrated, “I will have to kill you for real!”
“Big words,” I taunted. “You’re already tiring out. Whereas, I'm only getting stronger with every swipe.”
It was true that every tentacle I took out gave me a temporary boost of energy. In our fight to rescue Ryuuk, it hadn’t seemed like me draining his tentacle for energy had an adverse affect on him, but that was because he was already so boosted from draining enemy clones.
“You forget how easy it is for me to recharge,” he said, and this time a tentacle snaked out past me to latch on to the child, who was cowering by the blue crystal.
“Fuck!” I muttered and moved to intercept, but he had already let go as if burned.
From just one brief touch of the child’s power, Matthew was suddenly radiating dark energy. As he stared at his severed hand, a dark miasma oozed out of his stump to solidify into a surrogate hand made out of void magic. He flexed his fingers and smiled, and for the first time, I saw the real darkness lurking behind his eyes.
He let out a loud laugh as he raised both arms up to his shoulders. Numerous void tentacles, each the size of a grown man’s thigh, rose from the ground throughout the grotto to grasp onto whatever helpless person was closest.
“You were saying something about tiring out?” Matthew taunted, his voice taking on a deep, guttural quality. “I was just going to kill you, Skye Alnasi. Chosen of the Archer.”
His voice was mocking as he spoke of the Zodian deity.
“With this child, my master will make the Archer and all the Houses of Ecliptis kneel before him,” he said, his voice raising maniacally. “The whole galaxy will submit their will to The Great Nothing!”
Then he pointed a finger toward me, a tiny ball of void energy gathering at the tip of his finger and growing to the size of a melon.
“Starting with you.”