Talek looked up from his place in Calamon, gazed into the black sky where sat the white sun.
“...And so another silhouette joins the fun…”
And the battle was known to have begun.
57.
Hemah, The Palm
The burning of the sunlight faded as they approached, subdued by Serkukan's unbeatable warp.
Hemah's axe ripped into Cedric's chest, shattered the armor like glass. His momentum continued through her and he emerged behind her, completely unharmed by the devastating blow. Cedric faltered beneath the flicker of fading pain. Then he spun, smashed his fist into the back of her head, shot blood out of her nose, half-exposed by the already shattered helmet atop her head.
“I didn't know you'd fucking bleed!” he shouted. Down went a stomp into her ribs, careening her toward the ground like an asteroid with a fierce burst of wind to follow.
There was a glint of blue below. Faunia.
A frozen arrow tore through Hemah's chest, sent her spinning in the air.
Cedric threw himself down from above.
Faunia rose from below.
They both threw their hands out into bladed weapons, both raced for the inevitable death blow…
Hemah stopped. She tensed up wholly, screamed out with all of her rage, “ALGIRAAAAAAAAAAAK!”
Cedric only had a spare breath to raise his eyebrows before his eyes burnt out from her explosion of sunlight. He reached up breathlessly for his face, for the boiling bulbs within their sockets. Then the skin of his face began to burn.
He felt her grip crunch through the plate armor of his shoulder. He felt bones shatter, released a harsh, impulsive whimper.
“Cedric!” Faunia screamed. "Get away from him, Hemah!"
Then his sight was back—Serkukan was becoming faster at keeping Cedric in prime condition. Faunia raced upward with an icy lance enclosed in her fist.
“After you die…” he groaned, using all of his willpower to suppress her burning sunlight, his wings beating the wind to rise above her, “I'll close the ley barrier! I'll end Calamity!”
She cocked her head. “...End… Calamity!?”
Her mouth launched agape as Faunia's lance impaled her through the spine, bent her backward like a broken toy. Faunia pushed it all the way to the hilt, shoved the icicle tip right against Cedric's chest with the force of her impact. The end dripped water as it began to melt against his shining plate.
Cedric's wings kicked the air and gave some space. “...Is she dead? I hardly think it would be that..."
And then Hemah grabbed the watery tip of the lance.
...simple!
Hemah screamed out a shrill and horrible scream that forced them both back, forced their hands to their ears.
Then she spun, exploded with brilliant light that melted the lance into vapor, knocked Faunia backward in avoidance of her violent heatwave.
Cedric lunged. Her hand came up defensively, but Serkukan made his whole arm incorporeal, shot claws from his knuckles as they raced for her mouth.
There was a sickening crack as his disembodied fist clicked against her teeth, the blades of his claws injected themselves fully through the flesh of her head, through the back of her mouth, gave whiplash from the acceleration.
—I know!
Then Hemah grabbed both of his arms, dug her nails in. She screamed with ten voices, brought her bleeding, sliced up mouth close to his. She screamed and screamed, just one golden eye visible through her broken helmet.
The helmet, I wonder…
Cedric forced his arm away from her, uppercut her jaw once, then twice. Her skin was glistening red all over, flapping around disconnected from bone. Her regeneration would begin soon; they had to be even faster.
Hemah darted upward with Cedric in tow, avoiding a swing of Faunia's new weapon, a frozen longsword.
Then she threw him skyward with his back to the sun, raced to meet him.
A massive crimson shield grew from his palms. She slammed against it with a horrible, reverberating BANG! And it was silent for a moment.
Cedric panted. He glanced overtop the bleeding shield just in time to watch Faunia launch her sword like a javelin through Hemah. The goddess fell.
“...Used her own momentum against her.”
Cedric nodded, cast aside the shield and kicked off the air like an arrow.
He passed Faunia, who could only muster a flustered “Cedric!” as he passed.
“The helmet, aim for the helmet!” Cedric shouted.
She nodded, summoned her bow.
Cedric thrust himself downward again, spun so that he wasn't occluding the shot.
There went the arrow, aimed with perfect, precise precision. It shot straight, with enough speed to burn a blue line in the air that hung there for longer than the arrow's flight.
Cedric looked to Hemah, his heart pounding.
…But she'd caught the frozen arrow in her hand.
Faunia suddenly spiraled beside Cedric. She shouted, “Expand it! Tirolith!”
An explosion of ice in her hand sent Hemah reeling, locked her arm and head in a thick layer of frost.
Cedric grinned. “Faunia!”
“I've got it!”
She formed a shield of ice, launched it down at Cedric with incredible speed.
Cedric lunged into its path, kicked off of it like a platform to gain a last burst of momentum before Hemah could reach the ground. He grabbed her in his arms, spun at immense speed as he rammed her into the fast-approaching cobbles of the Petal below.
…
…
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
…
…
X
Faunia raced to the ground.
Ithlo, please!
I have you, Faunia. Worry not.
Her momentum cut in half, her body flipped so she was upright. She landed clumsily, stepped a few times to keep her balance. Her breaths were fast and heavy.
She saw the two of them there, both crouched upon the ground, both staring off with each other. Hemah grit her bloody teeth. Her voice rang out with fifteen in sync through newly-formed golden lips: “I will destroy you, defiler of light!”
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Cedric's face softened slightly in confusion.
Faunia said, “He's not the one who killed the sun!”
Neither of them looked to her.
“Hemah, please! Listen to us, we know who did this!”
Then twenty voices: “I will annihilate you!”
“The voices…” said Cedric, “Faunia, the voices! She's drawing out some kind of power—”
She was so fast the cobbles all sprang up in her tailwind.
Cedric couldn't even turn his head to see her as she slammed a fist through his gut, lifted him off his feet. Blood gushed, sprayed, mixed with bile as his innards were struck from his body.
Faunia watched in terror. “Ithlo!”
The air warped then stilled. All became imposingly silent.
Time is frozen. Act now, we have ten seconds—
Ten!?
She ran forward in a fluster.
Nine.
A blade of ice summoned to her hand.
Eight.
She pulled it back uneasily, readied it at Hemah.
Seven.
But what about Cedric…?
Six.
She touched Hemah's bloody fist, tried to push it back out of Cedric's body.
Five.
She grabbed Cedric, tried to pull him free.
Four.
She pulled harder. Tirolith and Ithlo appeared at his sides, helped her pull him away. He floated in midair, weightless.
“Three.”
“Tirolith, heal him!” Faunia lifted her sword again.
“Two.”
Cedric's gut was mended. Tirolith gently laid him down to the ground. Faunia swung the blade for Hemah's throat.
“One.”
And Hemah caught the blade in her bare hand. It shattered in her grip.
“...No!” Faunia cried out in desperation.
Cedric fell flat on the ground, lay there in shock for a moment.
Hemah grabbed Faunia's face tight in one hand, lifted her from the ground.
“Defiler. Defiler! Heretic!” Thirty voices followed Hemah's own.
Faunia felt her desperation slip. Her brows shot down like spikes, her teeth grit hard enough to sever steel. “I'm fucking sick of you!”
And Tirolith knocked Hemah's helmet free from her head.
Her long golden hair fell free down to her lower back. Her golden eyes shimmered in a beauty to match her radiant skin, her brilliant appearance.
And she fell to the ground screaming. Faunia kicked away from her grip and landed precisely two feet away.
Faunia's blade mended itself, glistened with sharpness. “All this time, all this cowering, all of these mistakes. All of these dead people… all that you've done! I'm so sick of pretending I'm scared or weak, I'm so sick of pretending like you're anything more than another deranged fuck who wants the world for themselves!”
Hemah gargled, drooled and puked as her screams continued, she fell fetal to the ground, clutched her head tight.
Cedric was beginning to stand again.
“I'm so fucking tired. I can't remember the last time I was sure of myself… but I am now.”
She lifted the blade.
“Wait.” Cedric caught her wrist.
Faunia gasped. And with his touch came her anxiety, her uncertainty. Her blade began to tremble.
“Tirolith. Mend.”
Hemah's screams grew softer and softer until there was no sound at all. She lay still in her puddle of drool, hugged herself tightly.
Cedric touched Faunia's shoulder. She flinched, lowered the blade, almost threw herself at him for comfort.
But then he took his hand back, and Ithlo’vatis with it.
“Bind.”
For Cedric, there was a loud and satisfying click in his mind, like a blade locking into a scabbard. Faunia heard nothing, felt a small pulse on the twice-ley. “What was that…?”
“I bound Ithlo’vatis to Hemah, as a device might be bound. It's not permanent… but it at least means that she can't hurt us, unless she's hoping to be destroyed.”
“Like a collar… Cedric, I'm sorry, I almost—”
Cedric touched her again, rubbed the sweaty back of her neck soothingly. She lowered her head to him, pushed her forehead against his shoulder in a half hug. “You did good. You weren't wrong to try to kill her, obviously. I didn't know we were going to capture her either until I got here. It occurred to me on my way down.”
“How did you learn any of… Oh. Ithlo, isn't it?”
Cedric nodded.
Then Hemah began to drag herself up. She looked at the two of them in confusion, then gnashed her teeth with fury.
“Don't dare try anything, Hemah. You're bound to me, now.”
She reached up and touched her neck as though expecting a physical collar to be there. Then her expression filled with fear.
Great and mighty Hemah, outdone that easily?
Should she have reached the hundred voices, we would have been outdone swiftly. It's a simple game of numbers, and having the right abilities.
But freezing time is a good counter for just about anything, isn't it?
…Except for Kogar's Moment, yes.
Cedric looked skyward. No more was the sun scalding to stand under. “I'm going to ask you a few questions. If I don't like your answers, well… you can figure it out.”
The angel glared.
“You mentioned Algirak, and not exactly in a most loving way. Care to elaborate?”
She hesitated. “...Elaborate?”
“What's the relationship between you two?”
“He is my captor.”
Cedric considered his next choice of words. “Algirak is dead. Mostly.”
Her expression piqued with some kind of trapped joy, then fell again to a glare. “Mostly?”
“I'm told he still exists in some small pieces, in places unknown.”
Faunia elbowed Cedric, “There was a fragment of him in Aeon. One of the—”
THOOOOOOOOOOM!
The world shook as Hemah launched away, off toward the west.
Cedric's jaw dropped. “Oh, fuck…”
Faunia held a hand over her mouth. Then she steeled her expression. “...Not like this!”
THOOOOM!
Up she went.
Cedric looked to his hand. “I'm guessing there's no good way for me to just… reel her back, is there?”
You can kill her.
He looked skyward again.
“I… I'll leave it up to Faunia first. I have to trust her.”
THOOOM!
I have to trust her...
And into the sky he launched.
X
Talek stepped into the Petal where a large fight had just broken out. The cobbles were flung all over, a massive hole had bored into the very center of the platform. Blood was sprayed and splattered all over, mixed in some places with water.
He leant down, touched two fingers to some blood. He brought it up and sniffed it.
“Hemah, The Palm. We thank you, Algirak, for your allowance of her.”
Then he twitched, spasmed, rubbed his neck. He touched his stomach.
“I'm getting tired again.”
He spun backward. His plainclothes became covered in black and white crystals. A horrible, horrible grin twisted his thin lips.
“Good morning again, Caloria.”
And there began his ravaging upon the leylines.