“Now’s a good time,” Ral shouted at the general direction of the Gate. His invisible sister was there somewhere, hopefully finding the solute he’s supposed to smash. “Not to rush you, princess.”
Verne was acting strange. Ral supposed he was being too hard on his friend since it wasn’t until yesterday the man saw an Unseeing for the first time. And he was in denial about how they were Gaians turned into monsters… Sun curse it, he hoped Aris wouldn’t rub it in after. But the Sekrelli had frozen up more than once today and it troubled Ral.
An Unseeing screeched as it clawed its way up the side of the house to try to get to him. It was easy knocking them off at their height advantage, but the sheer number of them had Ral worried. He caught another expression of shock from Verne.
“Is that…? Did you see…” Verne stammered, his words barely heard over the screaming of the sea of monsters below them.
“Ral!” Aris’s voice drifted over to him.
“We have to move now,” he called back to Verne who only snapped out of it in time to knock another Unseeing down from the roof they were standing on. Ral had no time to worry about him. They had to cross a huge field and risk being swarmed the moment they dispatched from the roof. They also had to dodge the tendrils coming out of the Gate that threatened to pull both himself and Aris into the dark ring of fire. “Verne! I need your help.”
The other man blinked, scowled, then nodded. He gripped his sword and yet again Ral witnessed the pure strength that emanated from the young Sekrelli. The focus. The control. The two of them launched off the roof of the house at the same time and pelted towards the Gate. Verne slashed at Unseeing in their way, stabbing and stepping off them to further propel himself forward. Ral did that if he had to, but he focused on finding the solute he had to destroy.
“Aris, where?” he shouted. A slight glimmer of light appeared then disappeared.
It was almost easy last time. Aris materialized it as a handful of light and all he had to do was strike it. But this time his sister couldn’t risk materializing so close to a huge portal, one where tendrils came pouring out and Mind was nearly pulling its grotesque form out into their world. Aris was almost pulled in last time .
In a desperate attempt, Ral flung himself at where he thought he saw the glimmer of light and tried to land a strike. It hit thin air and he nearly plunged into the open Gate. A ghostly hand materialized and shoved him in the opposite direction at the same time as a tendril whipping out to come after him.
He crashed down on the floor, rolling to dodge the tendril from the Gate and then blocking the blood red mouths of Unseeing snapping right at his face. Verne crashed into the backs of the Unseeing, slicing off eyeless heads, then shoving him before attempting to block the tendril whipping down to strike him.
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“I can’t see it!” Ral shouted. There was a sound of a disgusted groan and he would have been amused if they weren’t all in danger of dying right there.
“Come to me, son of suns,” Mind hissed. “Join me, daughter of moon. Witness the Finale… Witness the end…”
“No thanks,” Ral huffed, striking an Unseeing hard with his staff, then whipping it around again to drive the sharp end through its chest. “You didn’t convince me back in Alkkes. You don’t exactly drive a bargain here.”
He looked up and the glimmer returned, higher than he thought it would be. This time, not only did it shine slightly, it seemed to look like a foggy outline of a large rock floating and spinning in mid air. He gathered all the ‘stillness’ he could and then launched himself towards it, using the tendrils sweeping down to swat him as footholds to get higher. He was suddenly pulled down sharply and he felt the air vacate his lungs at the sudden change in movement.
Something caught on his foot and was pulling him down with incredible force. Ral wildly twisted and stabbed his staff with the pointed end at passing tendrils, missing twice and managing to get it before he hit the ground. He hung on tight to the staff, the force nearly ripping his arm out of its socket. The tendril on his foot remained and to his horror he saw Unseeing climbing up the tendril trying to reach him.
He retracted the staff and it led him to plummet to the ground. But falling on his own terms meant he was able to brace for impact. He crunched forward and slashed the length of tendril around his foot to set himself free, then scrambled up to his feet. The Unseeing hanging in the tendrils fell as well, a few of them crippled in the process but many more immediately launched themselves at him. Long, vicious teeth sank into his shoulder and he felt monstrous bodies pile themselves onto him.
“Come to me, son of suns.” Mind sounded delighted. If the Unseeing tore him to pieces, would she still be delighted with his mangled corpse?
He heard Verne swear loudly as he desperately tried to fling off the Unseeing clinging to him by tooth and nail. Heard Aris call out to him. Then a third familiar voice rang out, saying his name with a lilting accent: “Ralos!”
“Is that - ?” Verne’s voice cut off in shock as a dark blur pummeled the Unseeing surrounding Ral. Blood spewed out, almost getting in his eyes but he fought the urge to close them as he saw what - or who - joined the fight.
Long, dark blue-black hair tied mixed with sleek braids swayed as Mikol turned around, his luminous blue eyes meeting him with an inexplicable expression.
“Ral!” Aris nearly screamed.
Mikol jerked his head upwards and without a second thought, Ral ran towards the Yscian and stepped on his interlocked hands that flung him upwards. They had done this before to scale walls quickly. The combined strength gave him more than enough height to reach the materialized solute and he coiled his arm with the freerunner staff extended, then struck the solute as hard as he could when he was in striking range. It shattered like glass and disappeared from view.
He landed heavily in the dirt below among the angry protests of Mind and the sudden dissolution of Unseeing around him. He ignored his bleeding wounds and aching legs, wildly seeking out Mikol amongst all the carnage.
“You,” he snarled. “What are you doing here?”