Day Thirty Six
Dear diary, I lost, but I will not stop hunting.
The shattering of glass wakes me up. I quickly jumped out of bed, trying to figure out where the noise came from. It is still early in the morning, and the sun has not even come up yet. I am about to head back to bed when I suddenly hear voices from downstairs but I can hear voices downstairs.
“The artifact must be here. Look at the signal readings.” A feminine voice says.
“But the emperor told us not to stand out too much until we obtain the artefact,” a male voice says.
I look around the room picking up my sword. I spot my target sleeping on the window sill and shake him awake.
“Kuro, it's go time,” I say to the cat.
Kuro looks at me confused, but then we hear more noise downstairs, and he nods, “On it, good luck.”
I smile. “Don’t worry, my amulet is charged. I am out of here if anything bad happens.”
With that, Kuro disappears into the shadow as I slowly make it out of the bedroom and start to creep down the stairs. The creatures are rummaging around in the living room, and I try to get as close as possible. Suddenly, one of them turns around and spots me. Before it can say anything, I create a fireball in my hand and throw it at its face.
“Come catch me if you can!” I shout at them as I run out the front door.
I run onto the street only to be bathed in a heavy float light. I blink several times, trying to get used to the sudden brightness; I spot a large blue rectangle object floating in the sky.
“Surrender the artefact or else,” a voice says echoing from the box.
“Yeah, no way. Come and catch me if you can,” I say, sticking my tongue out.
An electronic whirling can be heard as the box charges something up. I frown as I start running, but I am too late. The box starts shooting, burning everything around me. Sophia’s house is gone… so it is a large part of the street. The only reason I am somewhat fine is that I was at the edge and am still heatproof, as is the case with the rest of the people. They did not get that lucky. I feel my heart freeze over as tears start to prick in my eyes.
“You monsters you killed my friend!” I shout as I throw a fireball at the flying box.
The fireball just bounces off the ship, and I decide that it is time to run. I sprint through the city streets with the box flying after me, all the while shooting more lasers or plasma at me, whatever it uses. Wherever we go, destruction follows, destroying houses and leaving massive holes inside the street. leaving destruction in its wake. Okay, this is seriously not good. What do I do? I can’t fight a spaceship on my own, not with just my hands.
Suddenly, I hear gunshots. As I look around, I see people coming outside, woken up by the noise, and grabbing their guns to fight. Sadly, they don’t last long as the ship focuses on them, and they get vaporised in an instant. I try my best to blink away the tears. This is all my fault. I keep running until I spot the mall. It might still be too early for the shops to be open so I run inside to hide.
I was right. All the shops are luckily closed so no more chances of innocent bystanders getting hurt in this fight. But what do I do now? I need to hide. I jump into one of the shops, hiding between the clothing racks. I wait for something to happen.
I hear a loud crash as pieces of glass fall down from the sky. Then, floating platforms with even more aliens decent down. I frown that there are a lot more of them than I hoped for. I can’t fight all of those.
“Clear this sector. The child could not have gone far. Capture her and retrieve the artifact” one of the aliens says. He is wearing some species military suit whit all kinds of bags stapled on.
Now that they are not trying to hide I can get a better look at them. They look pretty human; just like us, they have two eyes, a mouth, and a nose in similar proportions to ours, the only difference being their blue skin tone. I crawl even further into the clothing racks as a group of four aliens walk into the store I am hiding in.
They start to kick racks over and generally make a mess of the place, making me think that it is only a matter of time before they find me. So, I come up with a stupid plan. I throw a small fireball into the back of the store when they are not looking, trying my best to create a distraction.
To my surprise, it actually works. The clothes catch fire, and it spreads slowly. The store starts to burn, and the aliens slowly back out of the store. I slowly sneak after them, trying to figure out where they are going so I can find a safe way out of this place.
Suddenly, a voice came over the mall's announcement system. “Hey, kid, look what we have here. If you don’t want anything to happen to your parents, come out,” the voice says.
I frown and look around the mall. In the middle of the mall, next to the fountain, are my parents tied up together as one of the aliens holds a gun at their heads. The well-dressed alien is standing next to them, looking smug. I assume that he is the leader. I grit my teeth and take off the amulet, folding the necklace a few times into a bracelet and hiding the plate in my sleeve. My hope is that they don’t expect it to be there, giving me a little bit more time to escape if I need to. I raise up my arms as I come out into the open.
“You got me. Now let them go”, I growl at the alien.
“NO MO YOU HAVE TO RUN!” Mother shouts at me.
“Silence” The alien that is guarding them snaps as he slams the back of the gun into my mom. A sickening crack can be heard as her neck twists the wrong way.
“MOM!” I shout as tears start to come free, “You will pay for that.”
“pay, and how will you make us pay for that? You are too small and weak to defeat us,” the fancy alien says.
“Maybe not now, but at some time I will be strong enough, that can be in the past of the future. I swear I will never stop hunting you until you are all erased from the annals of history,” I growl at him as I slip the plate into my hand.
“Stop her!” the leader shouts.
Green, blue, purple, green.
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Day Thirty Six
Dear diary, we lost, but I will not stop hunting.
The shattering of glass wakes me up. I quickly jump out of bed, and try to figure out where the noise came from. The room is dark, but I can still hear voices coming from downstairs.
“The artifact must be here. Look at the signal readings.” A feminine voice says.
“But the emperor told us not to stand out too much until we obtain it”, a male voice says.
I look around the room as I pick up my sword. I spot my target sleeping on the window sill and shake him awake.
“Kuro, it's go time,” I say to the cat.
Kuro looks at me confused, but then we hear more noise downstairs, and he nods, “On it, good luck.”
I smile. “Don’t worry, my amulet is charged. I will be out of here if anything bad happens.” I pause, and this kind of feels like déjà vu. I shake my head trying to clear it. It does not matter.
Kuro disappears into the shadow and I slowly make it out of the bedroom and creep down the stairs. The creatures are rummaging around in the living room, and I try to get as close as possible. Suddenly, one of them turns around and spots me. Before it can say anything, I create a fireball in my hand and throw it at its face.
“Come catch me if you can!” I shout at them as I run out the front door.
I run onto the street only to be bathed in a heavy float light. As my eyes get used to the sudden brightness, I spot a large blue rectangle object floating in the sky.
“Surrender now or….” The rest of the words are never spoken as lighting crashes down on the ship.
A big blue snake made out of pure lighting starts wreaking heavily on it. And the only thing I can do is just stare at it in amazement. Suddenly, I get tackled from behind by one of the aliens that were still inside the house. I try to fight him off, but it is hard to do so he is big and heavy. Suddenly, he spasms and goes limp, almost crushing me until someone lifts the weight off me.
“Seems like I was just in time. How are you doing, kid,” a feminine voice asks me.
I look up in surprise. In front of me, dressed in some kind of ceremony rope, stands a beautiful woman with slitted green eyes and long, flowing white hair. It is the snake Traveller. She reaches out her hand and picks me off from the floor.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, a bit surprised and starstruck.
“Well, these guys are our sworn enemies, so of course I would come and help the cute little baby traveller take care of them,” she says as she pats my head.
I want to feel insulted, but on the other hand, the women just took down a spaceship. “Okay, so what do we do next?” I ask.
“We go and rescue your parents,” she says with a smile.
I look at her in surprise. “Okay, let's get going”, I say as I start running in the direction of the police station, already feeling excited. This might just be a lot easier than anticipated.
I hear the snake traveller laugh as she runs after me. We quickly sprint through the street, super-powered limbs carrying us forward. We make it to the station in no time, and it explodes into flames as soon as we arrive.
“Mom, Dad, Kuro,” I cry out as I jump into the burning wreckage.
As I make it through the rubble and fire I find a little furry thing pushed against the wall. “KURO!”
I pick up the cat in my arms, cradling it as I try to check for breading. “I am sorry, Traveller, I failed.” He says as his breathing slowly seizes.
“NO!” I shout as I cradle my friend. “You can’t die. There are still so many places we should visit, sights to see, libraries to burn.”
I stand up and head further inside; there I find more burned and charred bodies. I can’t be sure if they belong to my parents, but I feel like the writing is pretty much on the wall. I solemnly walk outside to where the other Traveller is still waiting. I swear that I could see her wipe away a tear.
I want to say something, but pause. The sky is starting to get filled with more spaceships. Most of them are more of those rectangle things, but one is a lot bigger than the rest, and instead of being a rectangle, it is a giant ball.
“The emperor's right hand?” I hear the snake traveller say in confusion.
I stand there as my emotions boil over, the feeling of anger and rage taking over my body as I point at the ship. “Let this be your reckoning, the annihilation you deserve! May nothing of you remain beside a beautiful scar on creation!.” The magic circle coalesces around my hand, forming a little ball as I punch forward. “SCORCH!” I shout. my arm explodes as the spell rushes forward.
A resounding explosion echoes as the dreariness of the morning light is momentarily replaced by the mid-afternoon sun. The torrent of fire burns forward, consuming everything in its wake. Be it the rectangles that start to fall out of the sky or the giant ball.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Everything seems quiet for a while besides the crashing of the ships to the ground. As the smoke clears away, I see that the ball is still hangs in the air. It surfaces away from the heat. I glare at it as I prepare to throw another spell at it. Only to stumble and fall to the ground.
I look at the snake lady who is looking at the sceptical with concern.
She then turns to me, “We can’t win this fight.” she says in a depressing tone. “Get out of here now.”
My eyes go wide, but I do as she says and grab the amulet, only to release. It is not charged. Wait, how, when did that happen? I look back at the snake lady. “It has not changed”, I shout at her.
She frowns and takes out her plate. “I am sorry, but I swear that I will come back for you.” She says as she presses the code and disappears.
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Day Thirty Six
Dear diary, we lost, but I will not stop hunting.
The shattering of glass wakes me up. I quickly jump out of bed, trying to figure out where the noise came from. The room is dark, but I can hear voices coming from downstairs.
“The artifact must be here. Look at the signal readings.” A feminine voice says
“But the emperor told us not to stand out too much until we obtain it”, a male voice says.
I look around the room as I pick up my sword. I spot my target sleeping on the window sill and shake him awake. I swear I have done this before, but for the life of me, I can’t remember when.
“Kuro, it's go time,” I say to the cat.
Kuro looks at me confused, but then we hear more noise downstairs, and he nods, “On it, good luck.”
I smile “Don’t worry, my amulet is charged. I will be out of here if anything bad happens.” Wait, is it charged that feels incorrect somehow?
With that, Kuro disappears into the shadow as I slowly make it out of the bedroom and creep down the stairs. The creatures are rummaging around in the living room, and I try to get as close as possible. Suddenly, one of them turns around and spots me. Before it can say anything, I create a fireball in my hand and throw it at its face.
“Come catch me if you can!” I shout at them as I run out the front door.
I run onto the street only to be bathed in a heavy float light. As my eyes get used to the sudden brightness, I spot a large blue rectangle object floating in the sky.
“Surrender now or….” The rest of the words are never spoken as lighting crashes down on the ship.
A big blue snake made out of pure lighting starts wreaking havoc on it as I just stare at it in amazement. Yeah, I am sure I have seen this before. Next up is someone jumping me from behind. I jump to the side on pure instinct as the alien flies past me. I take out my sword and stab it. As its blood spills out, I wonder why I am not more disturbed by this. But for some reason, when I see them, all I can feel in my body is rage.
“wow, aren’t you a vicious little thing.” a feminine voice says.
I turn around in surprise, only to see the snake traveller behind me walking away from the smoking corpse of the other alien.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, a bit surprised.
“Well, these guys are our sworn enemies, so of course I would come and help the cute little baby traveller,” she says as she pats my head.
I smile. It is good to have help, “Okay, so what do we do next?” I ask.
“We go and rescue your parents,” she says with a smile.
I look at her in surprise. “Okay, let's get going”, I say as I start running in the direction of the police station, already feeling excited.
I hear the snake traveller laugh as she runs after me. We quickly sprint through the street, super-powered limbs carrying us forward. We make it to the station in no time, only for it to explode into pieces. I am about to run into the burning building, but I feel an arm on my shoulder holding me back. I look back and see a red demon smiling at me.
“You here, two?” I say in surprise.
“Yeah, sorry for being late. I had to get your parents and your little cat to safety first. She says as she points down the streets where I see my parents. They look a bit thinner than I remember and look rather panicky, but they're still alive. I run towards them in excitement as I hug both of them.
“Mother and Father, I missed both of you so much. There is so much that has happened, and I need to tell you, but first, we must get to safety. There are probably still more aliens around here.” I say in excitement to both of them as I hug them tight.
“My baby, where have you been? we were so worried.” My mother says as she brushes my hair.
“Sorry to interrupt the reunion, but we still have some troubling things to take care of.” The demon Traveller says as she points in the sky.
In the sky, a fleet of aliens is coming closer. There are lights illuminating the sky. I nod at her and break free of my parent's hug as I unsheathe my sword.
“Let's show these basters that they picked the wrong planet to mess with,” I say with excitement.
“Mo, you can’t,” my father says.
“Sorry, Father, but I am no longer mo. I am the traveller now, and I won’t let these basters make a mess of my planet.”
“That is the spirit, kid,” the demon says as she claps me on the shoulder. “You and snake lady over there are in charge of taking down their vanguards while I focus on the emperor's right hand.”
I nod in understanding, but something still bothers me about this, right hand? I feel like I heard that before, but I can’t recall where, even with my perfect memory. I just shake my head. It’s not important right now; I have a job to do. I go stand next to the snake traveller.
“So, which ones do you want?” I ask while looking at the ships.
She just shrugs. “I take the left. You take the right?”
I pause, eyeing the four ships that I would have to take down. “I am not sure if I am strong enough,” I say a bit awkwardly.
“Trust in your magic. You are more than strong enough. I know it.” She says with a smile.
I just nod and start searching my memory for the perfect spell for this situation. I Slowly start to form the magic circle for the spell. I take one last look at the other traveller. The snake lady is bathed in lightning, a giant snake made of lightning coiling around her. The demon, on the other hand, is bath In flame, drawing some kind of circle on the floor.
I start my chant. “From the ashes of creation, I bring forth your eternal judgement. APOCALYPSE!” I shout. It echoes between the buildings.
My magic circle rising and disappearing into the sky. Nothing happens for a few seconds until the sky starts to look like it is on fire as several meteors start to streek their way down to earth, hitting the flying ships and taking them out of the sky.
I smile as I fall to the ground, the spell having drained most of the magic out of me. To my side, I see the snake traveller doing a similar thing as dark clouds start to form, filled with the nervous energy of lightning. A thunderclap resounds as the first bold hits the ship, tearing a giant hole in it. And then more join it, streaking all over the flying ships until they are full of holes.
Then, the lighting suddenly stops. The ships are still airborne but leaning to the side ever so slightly. Then the clouds split open, revealing the massive maw of the snake as it bides down on the ships, making them explode into millions of pieces that rain down on the city.
I look at the onslaught in both amazement and horror. Sure, we managed to do a great deal of damage, but the amount of collateral damage we must have done to the city is beyond what I wished. I look back at our little circle, noticing that the demon girl has finished her spell as well; as it activates, dark black symbols appear all over her body, and her hair is set on fire.
She screams, or I guess it is more a growl, as she runs forward at an incredible pace, making it almost impossible to follow her with the naked eye if it was not for the streak of fire she left behind in her wake. Then she jumps up, hitting the ship, making it lurch dangerously as a hole is punched in it. She disappears, and the only sound that remains is that of her roar as part of the round ball starts to explode.
A sudden shockwave rockets us as all the windows around us shatter.
“That is not good,” I hear the snake lady say.
“What is not good? What just happened,” I ask, confused.
“That ship has an antimatter drive. If that is breached, it will blow up the entire city. She says in a panic.
I look at her in horror. “Is there anything we can do?” I ask with fear.
“Pray she did not hit it or that she can steer the ship away.”
Suddenly, a loud explosion echoes through the city, and I can see a bright flash of light coming closer, enveloping us all.
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Day Thirty Six
Dear diary, we lost, but I will not stop hunting.
I wake up in surprise as someone puts their hand over my mouth. I blink in surprise, not comprehending the orange eyes I see looking at me.
“Aluma?” I ask in surprise as she takes her hand off my mouth.
“Hey, Traveller. It's been a long time, no see. We don’t have much time to talk. Get out of bed. We are going to get in a fight,” she says with a smile.
I am just confused but get up nonetheless, picking up my sword and strapping it on my back as I put Kuro underneath my arm. I follow behind Aluma, noting that her wings have changed. They no longer are the broken mess they were before; they have been replaced with some kind of golden metallic prosthetic limbs.
I follow her to a green door that now suddenly exists on one of the walls of Sophia's room. The inside is organised as some kind of living room, but with a big console in the middle behind it sits the male traveller. He looks up from his work as he spots us.
“Hey, little traveller, are you ready to take the fight to them?” he says with a smile.
“I guess, but what about my parents?” I ask in surprise. Why are they here? I guess I can’t complain I need the help.
“Don’t worry, somebody else is going to retrieve them,” he says with a smile.
I nod, a small smile forming on my face. “So, what do you need me for?”
“Can you stand by that window?” he says while pointing at a window. Behind it is a rolling vortex of lighting and starts. “On my signal, reach your hand in and drag someone out of there, okay.”
I nod, not understanding what is going on exactly, but it is a simple enough request, so I am more than capable of handling it. The other traveller feels with some of the dials and buttons on the counsel before he raises his finger in the air.
“And… now!” he shouts.
I stick my hand in, trying to grab onto whatever is in there. I feel something, and it grabs me back. Then I pull with all my might dragging the snake lady out of the window. What the hell is she doing here? She seems as surprise to see me as I am to see her.
“What is going on?” she asks.
“We are going to strike at the emperor’s right hand, and I need some backup to do that. That is why I made her grab you when you jumped into the time vortex.” The male traveller explains.
I look at both of them in surprise. Right hand that sounds so familiar, but I am not sure where I heard it before. You know what? It does not matter. We are here to knock them down a peg. Suddenly, the male traveller stands up.
“Okay, not much time to explain, so I keep it brief,” he says. “I am going to disable the warp drive. Miss Second, I need you to confront the emperor's right hand and keep him distracted. Take him out if you can, but you don’t have to. Tav Aluma, you two try to take control of the bridge and see if you can’t just launch this ship back into orbit.”
I nod and look at Aluma, who looks at me with a smile as she takes out a gun.
“What is that?” I ask in surprise.
“Plasma rifle, the age of spears is long over,” she says with a smile. I take a long look at my sword. I guess she might have a point.
“Okay, everyone ready?” the male traveller asks.
We all nod, and he opens the door and heads out with nothing more than a cain. The rest of us follow him, and I blink in surprise. We are no longer in the room. We moved somehow. I guess that makes sense, but it is still surprising there was not even the slightest bit of a vibration.
I look around, and the surroundings are very industrial in a creepy kind of way. There are metal walls where the only decorations are phrases praising the emperor. We almost immediately split up. Snake lady running forward causing chaos as the male traveller heads in a different direction.
We start running as well, trying our best to figure out where the bridge is. I am pretty sure this thing has its own gravity that makes my senses go haywire. Luckily for us, there are actually signs in a language that we can read.
Once we get to the correct room, Aluma rushes inside, flying high up into the air, and starts to shoot everyone inside. Taking everyone out in a matter of minutes. Kuro and I run over as well, trying to make sense of the control as we do our best to steer this thing upwards.
“You are really good at this,” I say to Aluma. As she lands back beside me
“Ah, what can I say? I used to be one of the tribe's great warriors. Of course, I am good at this. I have trained my entire life for an opportunity like this.” She says in an excited tone.
“Really, I did not see many plasma blasters back when we first met,” I say as I push some buttons that should get this ship out of autopilot.
“I guess that is true, but that is also like three years ago. I had a lot of time to learn in the meantime.”
I pause for a second “Three years, huh? That is a long time, so do you think you made the right choice?” I ask, a bit concerned about her.
“Of course I did. Travelling is amazing. Sure, there are going to be a few bad experiences here and there, but the overwhelming majority of the locations you visit are more than worth it. How about you? How far have you gotten with that Annabelle girl?” Aluma asks.
I blink “You know Anna?” I ask, a bit confused
“Yeah, of course, noble girl, very smart and a bit scary. Your fiancé, ooh, have you told your parents yet.”
I start to blush, “No, I have not, but I will, I promise, after we deal with whatever these assholes are up to”
At that time, an alarm starts to boot on the console, and I go pale.
“Uhm, Aluma, how much do you know about spaceships?”
“My knowledge is so-so,” she says. “Why ooh yeah, that is not good. What exactly is it?”
“It looks like they build a self-destruct sequence into their altitude meter. Once the ship reaches a certain height, it explodes,” I say, a bit surprised.
“Ooh, that is actually smart,” Aluma says.
“How is that smart? Why would you want to blow up your own ship?”
“Well, your Travellers are hard to catch since you can slip away easily, but you guys tend to help people, so if there was a giant explosion about to happen, the chance of you being lured in is rather high.”
“Ugh, I guess that is true. An explosion like this will wipe out the entire city,” I say with a frown; how do I know that?
“Can you disable it?” Aluma asks.
“Not sure, but I might be able to steer it into the sea or hmm, okay, stupid idea. Kuro, you stay here and try to take control of the flight path.
“And what are you going to do?” Kuro asks.
“Charge my amulet”, I say. “The explosion will happen because there is too much energy stored, right? So that means we just have to use the energy for something else. There is a canon below this place that is fed directly from the drive. If I used that to syphon of power, I might be able to stop it from blowing up or at least reduce the explosion.”
“Okay, but did you not just charge it yesterday,” Kuro says
I frown. That is right; I did that. Why did I think it was empty? I take out the plate, and it is empty. That is strange, but it's not something I should worry about now. “It is empty again anyway. We will be off,” I say as I gesture for Aluma to follow me.
We quickly run out of the control room and into a detachment of guards. I create a big fireball and throw it at them, after which Aluma shoots them all. I don’t know when I stopped caring about killing or not, but something about these blue people makes me really angry.
We quickly fight our way through, and by that, I mean Aluma does most of the fighting while I do my best not to be in anyone’s way. Once we make it to the antimatter canon, I start uncompelling cables and plugging them all into a cheap wireless charger I brought with me. It is not the most elegant solution, but if it works, then it is not stupid.
Lastly, I take off the amulet and put it in the contraption. I mitred together. A loud whirling can be heard as it comes to life. Sparks start to fly as different things start to explode, pushing steam and other stuff into the air. There is a spike of pain in my arm as I feel it connected to the plate and to the core of the energy. For a brief second, I feel in complete control of the ship as agony wracks through my body.
I use this last moment of clarity to dump all the remaining energy it has into the atmosphere and every device that would take it. I sigh in relief as the crisis seems to be over; as my adrenalin leaves me, the pain returns in full force, hammering into me like a demented pickaxe. I screamed until I couldn’t scream anymore. I try to hold my arm only to realise it is no longer there, just ash and dust.
I start to panic, breathing faster as the room starts to spin. It becomes harder and harder to focus as I slowly slip unconscious.