Here Shines the Sun (42 page)

“Asteroth!” screamed Karinael.

The large man turned as one of the seven women bore her claws down upon him. He ducked and rolled through the water, coming up beside her, his axes swinging. The woman hissed and her body undulated as she was drawn away from him in a single, fluid motion, as if the very wind had cast her from his deadly path. And then, like a serpent shedding its skin, the woman’s dress peeled from her body as her legs dissolved into an oily, black trunk whose roots were lost beneath the churning water. Her torso rose up and up, becoming a curling neck as black and slick as some monstrous eel. Her mouth opened, elongating into a giant maw as her eyes transformed into enormous, yellow orbs.

Karinael was shaken from her horror by Saint Gadrial’s screams. Her head snapped in her direction. All seven women were now towering, serpentine necks risen from the water. One of them opened its jaws wide, revealing rows of long, white fangs. It hissed as its neck curled around and came bearing down upon Gadrial. In an instant Raziel’s body, encompassed by the glow of his Caliber, collided with her and they tumbled away, water thrown in all directions, just as the monster’s jaws crashed down, sending enormous waves that crested over the nearby Saints. Karinael looked up. Jaws large enough to swallow her whole opened high above her. Her eyes went wide as she let loose a shrill scream that drowned the beast’s own shriek. She raised her sword futilely, but then was suddenly taken from behind.

A black tentacle wound its way around her waist. She could feel it’s cold, oily slickness even through the leather of her bodysuit. She looked at it in horror as she was suddenly whisked thirty-feet into the air. She looked down screaming, her legs kicking. She could see Hadraniel and the other Saints struggling against an overwhelming disarray of snapping jaws and clutching tentacles. Their movements kicked up white, foamy water; their Caliber lights were hazy auras through the falling rain as they dodged and fought against a foe that could plunge beneath them or rise up behind them.

Karinael felt hot, sticky air wash over her and she looked up. Enormous jaws opened wide as the tentacle that clutched her brought her toward her doom. She screamed, holding her sword out in front of her, but before the sharp teeth sunk into her body the thing screeched and its neck recoiled.

Beneath her Asteroth ripped his axes from the creature’s neck, dark-red blood flying. The thing now turned its attention to him and its neck curled around as its head came down, snapping at him. Karinael felt her stomach flop as she was waved around in the air. Another tentacle came toward her. It began to wrap itself around her left leg but she reached down and hacked at it with her sword and it finally relented.

Beneath her, her friends were failing. Swords chopped at black tentacles, only for more to rise up in their place. They struck for any of the beast’s seven necks, but their weapons were no more than penknives to it. Raziel and Gadrial fought side-by-side, both refusing to let harm come to the other.

Karinael watched helplessly as Baradiel’s arm was wound by an oily tendril, his sword plunging into the churning water as he was yanked high into the air. Sodiel shot in, his bo-staff twirling. He was about to strike for the tentacle but one of the creature’s heads came chomping down on him. He rolled and came up fast, holding his bo-staff out just as the teeth closed in, the jaws stopping short of devouring him as his staff wedged the creature’s mouth open.

Hadraniel moved in, his sword whirling. His star-metal blade cut across the creature’s cheek, opening a wide gash beneath a huge, yellow eye. The beast squealed and Sodiel was able to rip his bo-staff away and tumble to safety, but the thing whipped its head and Hadraniel was tossed aside, splashing through the water.

Karinael fought against the panic that rose in her belly. She closed her eyes and focused on the Saints below. Her own Caliber began to glow around her. She had practiced linking with this group only a couple times, but although she was still new at this, Karinael could immediately feel them all around her, like fireflies dancing in her Caliber. She reached out to Asteroth whose own Caliber was so intense that it was impossible to miss, and she linked it to her own. Hadraniel’s Caliber came next, followed by Sodiel’s. Raziel’s and Gadrial’s came to her like a single unit. Finally, she found Baradiel, his Caliber coming from somewhere above and far to the left of her, and it was full of panic. Like distant candlelights she could feel the warmth of other Calibers too; the Calibers of those unknown Saints that were part of her and Hadraniel’s own serpent constellation in the sky. But they were much too far away to matter and would only distract her from the Saints she was currently with, and so she cast them away. She drew the Calibers she had gathered into her own and felt them all coming together as one. She was a conduit; a link. Through her own Caliber she connected them all, and as she did, her own Caliber began to intensify until she could feel the plasma wafting from her body and her eyes.

Through the stormy sky, more brightly than the lightning that flashed, burned the stars of Karinael and the others. It was not a serpent that was traced in the sky, for Karinael had focused only on the Saints that were with her. Instead, blazing white light shot from Karinael’s own star to Hadraniel’s, across a great expanse of cloud-cast sky to Raziel’s and then over to Asteroth’s, onto Gadrial’s and then Baradiel’s and finally Sodiel’s.

Beneath Karinael, the Caliber light of the Saints immediately roared to life. Their Star-Armor and weapons, once black, now burned as white as starlight. Hadraniel rocketed like a comet toward a tentacle, his spinning blade tracing a white disc around him. There was a heavy
thwack
as the oily tendril was cut clean through, revealing a stump of bone and pink flesh that quickly disappeared beneath the waves to the howling of one of the creature’s heads.

Another massive head barreled down upon Asteroth. The large man’s left gauntlet shone with brilliant white light as he wedged an axe between one of its enormous fangs. He wrestled with the beast a moment, its forked tongue whipping at him as his right foot stomped down between fangs on the lower jaw, pinning the giant maw open. Then his right hand swung around, plunging an axe into the thing’s eye. The fang that Asteroth held with his axe snapped off as the thing shrieked and recoiled from him.

Sodiel danced upon the water, his bo-staff a whirlwind above him as he fended off a lunging tentacle and rolled past another. An enormous head shot toward him, curled fangs reaching. Using his staff, Sodiel vaulted into the air and landed on top of the creature’s head. As it rose into the air he leapt off, swinging his staff, shattering teeth as he plunged back into the water.

Raziel and Gadrial stood side-by-side as a pair of tentacles struck down at them like snakes. They crossed paths as they leapt to opposite sides, the tentacles crossing each other and slapping the water where they had been. Gadrial jumped into the air and impaled the two tentacles together where they crossed. Raziel dashed in with his sword sweeping up, and he lopped them both off in a single stroke.

But then something shook Karinael’s focus. She felt horror and panic coming from Baradiel. Through her Caliber link she could feel intense pain in Baradiel’s left arm and right leg. She opened her eyes and saw Baradiel above her. He was held by a pair of tentacles, one around his arm and one around his leg. He fought and struggled but another tentacle wound its way around his neck. Karinael felt her link to the other Saints faltering as Baradiel’s panic infiltrated her mind. The light of her Caliber began to waver like a candle caught in the wind. The plasma that came off her body and from her eyes began to die out. And then Karinael screamed in horror as she watched the tentacles rip Baradiel’s head from his body. His arm came off at the shoulder and then his leg at the waist, and his torso plunged with the rest of his parts into the water below.

And the link was broken.

Karinael hacked down with her sword and felt herself fall from the tentacle, splashing into the water just as the light from everyone’s Star-Armor faded to blackness. She came up choking for breath and watched helplessly as Raziel was thrown aside by a tentacle. Another wrapped around Gadrial and dragged her beneath the waves. Her head came up screaming for a moment but she was quickly taken under again, her cries gurgling out. Raziel kicked himself to his feet. He screamed his rage as he ran to the last spot Gadrial had been. Sodiel pushed him aside and then used his bo-staff as leverage to vault himself over a giant maw that crashed down into the water, snapping at them.

Karinael looked and saw Hadraniel racing toward her, shouting something at her. She looked up and rolled just in time to avoid one of the serpent heads. Hadraniel pulled her to her feet. Nearby Asteroth yelled out. All heads turned.

The water bubbled and spat as a bulbous, black mass rose up. Thousands of gallons of water rolled off of it and the Saints had to swim as the shallow sea heaved and crashed around them. It was the thing’s body, and it was titanic, like some monstrous kraken risen from the abyss. At its center was an enormous, yellow beak that opened to reveal a bottomless throat lined with white spikes. All around it were rooted the thing’s endless tentacles. And the seven heads, Karinael watched with some horror, became its eyestalks; the jaws just pincers. The beak opened and let loose a long, shrill, haunting bawl that reverberated upon the mountains behind it as lightning flashed across the sky. As a singular unit all the Saints but Raziel turned to flee. Raziel was on his hands and knees in the spot Gadrial had been pulled below, screaming and splashing in the water, desperately seeking her.

Then Karinael felt the earth drop out beneath her and she was suddenly plunged into the cold water. Her breath gurgled as seawater engulfed her. Her arms and legs flailed. She looked up and saw the rain and a flash of lightning playing upon the waves above her head. She was sinking and her Star-Armor was sending her down like a rock. She looked around and saw only the dark, cold abyss of the ocean beneath her. She felt panic burn her belly. She closed her eyes and focused on her Caliber. She became lighter. She waved her arms and kicked with her legs. She felt herself rising, rising, rising until at last her head burst through the waves. She coughed and spat as rain pounded her face. A wave crested over her and for a moment she was back underwater. And then air tore through her lungs. She coughed and looked around. Hadraniel and the others were all struggling against the waves as they fought to remain above water.

Tentacles shot from the creature’s bulbous body. Karinael felt the crushing grip of a tentacle around her chest as she and Hadraniel were thrust into the air. Beside them, Asteroth, Sodiel and Raziel were also taken by massive tendrils. Sodiel was upside down. He slipped his staff between the oily coils that snared his legs, desperately trying to pry them loose. Karinael screamed as Sodiel was brought above that terrible beak to be devoured whole.

And then a ball of fire fell from the sky. It plunged into the water just in front of the creature’s body. Huge waves were thrown up in all directions, and once again the barren land could be seen. As the waters began to roll back, Erygion the Standard Bearer stood from his shallow crater. He held wide his arms, staying the sea. He had no cape or helmet; he had no weapon in his hands. Yet, somehow the man looked far more imposing to Karinael than she had ever seen him. There was a fury in his eyes that cut through the blazing inferno that was his Caliber’s aura.

“Saints of the Final Star!” roared Erygion, his Caliber as red and hot and molten as a volcano’s heart; too intense to gaze upon. Before him a wall of water stood, held back by his Caliber’s might alone. “You know me as the Standard Bearer, but you do not know why Aeoria has always counted one among her Guard!”

The creature began to shriek, its towering pincers going wild. Karinael felt the tendril around her waist loosen and she plunged to the ground, mud softening the blow. Beside her Hadraniel fell, and then Asteroth and Sodiel and then Raziel. The creature’s tentacles all shot toward Erygion, wrapping his body, his legs, his arms. They sizzled and smoked as they hit his armor. The creature struggled to move him, but Erygion stood his ground like a living monolith.

“The Standard Bearer is a rallying point!” raged Erygion as fiery heat poured from his Caliber, forcing Karinael and the others to scramble away from him. Yet still his fiery Caliber spread. Oily tentacles burned and smoked upon his black Star-Armor. “The Standard Bearer brings hope! The promise that one’s flag still waves sets the hearts of men ablaze!”

The creature shrieked, the seven eyestalk-pincers snapping at Erygion but not daring to bite him through that burning aura. The tentacles recoiled, charred flesh smoking.

“Saints of the Final Star, know that the banner of Aeoria yet flies!” roared Erygion. Within the inferno of Erygion’s Caliber now blazed the fiery star of Aeoria. “And know too that when I fall another already takes my place! When the time comes, she shall hold the banner high and you shall all rally to her! But on this day I say to you that we are the Saints of Aeoria! Our Calibers shall not snuff out like candles, but instead shall blaze as comets across the sky! And so to all of you I offer my light! Remember how it burned, and may it always bring you promise! Saints of the Final Star, go forth and fear no evil!”

The creature squealed. It tried to flee as Erygion’s Caliber flared from his body like the death throes of a collapsing star. The Saints all raised their arms, shielding their faces from the light and heat. Karinael could feel Erygion’s Caliber within her own now. Through it, she could hear his voice speaking to her alone. He spoke a thousand words to her, but in that moment all she really heard was,
“Goodbye, Karinael of the Generous Hand. Lead them well.”
Karinael fell to her knees as tears streamed down her face.

Through the flames of his Caliber Karinael could see Erygion’s body flaking away like ashes in the wind. The enormous creature shrieked and squealed as it was consumed into his aura. The waters around it began to boil, sending plumes of steam high into the air. There was an awful stench as the beast’s body was seared, its black skin popping and blistering. Its enormous beak blackened, and then charred bits began to crumble away.