In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (40 page)

Wilker
sees the research base only a couple hundred feet away, the top of which peeks
over the trees.

Everywhere
else around them are suburban houses and small apartments with green grass
lawns and alien but eerily similar looking to pine trees. It’s like they are on
a whole another ship.

Noata
stares at the other side. Where they came from.

“I’m
sorry,” he whispers. Explosions erupt from the plaza and the Eliite converge
onto it. Wilker places a hand on Noata’s shoulder.

“There
is no going back.”

…

Cole’s
eyelids pop open, his eyes roll back. He can see again. He floats above an
empty city, standing as if there was a floor beneath his feet. No walls, no
ceiling, only an endless sky and city surrounds him.

He
looks ahead. There sits a crystal throne and Leif who lies in it.

“How
is it like? To be a god?” Leif asks. Leif sits leisurely in his fragile looking
throne. He seems bored.

“Where
is she?”

“Who?”

“Thora,
I know you have her.”

“
Ahh
, Jahum was right, that’s what he was using,” Leif says
with a laugh.

“What!?”

“Don’t
worry, she’ll be here soon.”

…

Lance
and Serena look up as Noata and Wilker ascend to the other side. They hear
laughing around them. It’s the Damon and grunts the surround them. Serena grabs
Lance’s hand and squeezes it.

“Let’s
do this,”

They
attack. The grunts come first. Lance and Serena ping pong from grunt to grunt,
taking them down with ease. They are nothing to them, they’ve fought a lot
worse.

The
civilians in the plaza run as the battle intensifies, maybe the humans aren’t
to be reckoned with. With the grunts gone, the Damon stare from above, one of
them smiles.

“This
is going to be fun.”

The
Damon rush down toward them. Serena doesn’t give them a chance and leaps up and
smashes her fist into one of them and sends it hurling into a restaurant.
Serena follows him into the building and search for him.

“Serena
wait!” Lance yells. She’s too far off, they need to stay together. She looks
back at him. The Damon grabs her and flies off into the air. Lance runs for her
and—

He’s
hit hard from behind by a Damon and skids across the ground about two-hundred
feet. He catches himself as he skids to a stop. Adrenaline pumping through his
veins. Every Damon lands around him, surrounding him in a circle.

Lance
swings out his hand. Two long force fields erupt from his hands, long thin
energy planks. He flips them horizontally and spins. The blades spin and cut
clean into half of them as the others leap out of the way.

Their
tops halves slide off, red blood spurts out like a fountain, spraying on the
fleeing Serephins. A reminder that they bleed as red as we do, that gets Lance
blood pumping.

He
flips his blades vertically and swings his arms together catching the jumping
Damon like fish in a net. He presses hard, his arms pump up, veins pop out of his
skin and crush!

They’re
smashed under the pressure, their limbs, cracking and breaking, spurt out
blood, coating Lance.

Lance
releases them, the Damons fall like rag dolls in a bloody clump. He wipes
himself off.

“Disgusting.”

Three
Alphas hover in the sky above, just observing him. They all look like Kabus,
flashing his toothy grin. Lance wants to fight them off but—

He
looks around and behind him in the sky. Serena is gripped by a Damon, flying
through the air. He needs to help her. He looks back at the Alphas in the air
behind him.

One
of them is gone.

In
the sky above, Serena struggles in her captive’s hands. “Not today, buddy.” She
jabs her elbow into his gut and pushes herself free. She flips off his chest
and kicks him straight to the ground.

“Boo.”
a voice comes from above her. She looks up.

Wham!
Kabus drives his foot into her face and sends her to the ground with the Damon.

Two
of the Kabus land in front of Lance. “Not so fast, Lance.” They says in unison.

“When
I kill you this time, make sure you stay dead.” Nothing surprises Lance
anymore, not that there are three of him and certainly not that he survived.

Both
of the Kabus’s walk casually toward him, with a swag only Kabus can have.

“Unlike
you I was chosen by Leif, our Numenwolfe, to undergo a special procedure.
Numenwolfe by the way means
Godeater
. It’s a phrase
we’ve made up to have a little fun on our pilgrimage.” Kabus One smiles.

“Anyway,
the procedure was to speed up my ascension, like a dear acquaintance of yours,”
Kabus Two says. Lance slowly backs up as Kabus steps closer.

“My
powers are like a muscle, I can chose to isolate one or work them all together.
Ironically I came back from each defeat stronger and with the knowledge of
which muscle to work on to make your life a living hell.” Kabus One gives Lance
the finger. Both Kabus disappear.

Crack!
Left, right, up, down, sideways.

The
Kabus’ fists appear as quickly as they disappeared. Hitting Lance from every
angle possible.

Lance
is hit up into the air.

They’re
moving so fast that he can’t see them. One of the Kabus appears on the ground.
He points up at Lance and aims his hand like a gun.

“Bulls-eye,”
Kabus one says with a grin. He flicks down. Lance thinks fast. His force field
explodes apart as the force rips through it.

Serena
pushes a concrete slab off her body. She brushes herself off. She stands in a
pile of rubble. The hole she crashed through is the only thing providing light.

Did
she land inside a restaurant? There’s over-turned tables, knocked-down walls,
destroyed pieces of concrete, damn, she must have landed hard.

“Did
you know that a simple object such as a piece of metal can go right through
your battle hardened flesh, even with your new strength, even with your
power.
” Kabus’s voice echoes through the dark halls of the
building.

She
looks around frantically, nothing.

“All
you need is a just a bit of spin and a whole lot of thrust and it’ll go right
through.” Kabus’s voice echoes everywhere, she can’t pinpoint it, but
frantically tries too. Screw it, she should just fly through the hole she came
from.

“Like
so.”

A
two-inch inch piece of wire shrapnel rockets through the air and pierces Serena
in the right shoulder and pins her to the wall.

She
screams as she tries to pull herself free.

Her
screams are cut short when the third Kabus appears in front of her and covers
her mouth. She tries to scream through the pain but all that comes out are
muffles.

“
Shh
. Now
now
, I don’t want you to
bring any unwanted attention to yourself. I want to take a long
long
time getting my revenge on you for what you did.”

She
wants to beg and plead but it’s useless. She just looks him in his cold eyes
with her teary ones. There’s pain and anger in them.

“I’m
a fucking laughing stock now, for only lasting a few minutes in each fucking
battle on your stupid little fucking planet! That boyfriend of yours physically
hurt me but it was because of
you
that my fun was cut short.” He smiles.
 “I’ll admit though, I have a pretty big ego so I’m going to love every
second of this.”

…

In
the sky above, Leif stands up from his crystal throne. He reaches out and opens
up his hand. A glass cage builds up from nothing next to his throne. As if
doing such a thing was simple, as if it wasn’t a marvel in itself.

There’s
a flash, Cole shields his eyes. When he regains his vision, Thora lies in the
cage, curled up in a ball, passed out.

“Thora!”

To
Cole, she looks so innocent. Cole steps toward her but stops when Leif puts his
hand up.

“But
first...”

Cole
stands his grounds looking at Leif.

“What
is it like to become a god?”

“What
is your definition of a god?”

Leif
doesn’t answer.

“An
all knowing omniscient being that created the universe, a being that has powers
and abilities that no one has ever seen before, a being who can alter reality
itself or a homicidal ruler who only got a taste of that power and thinks he’s
a god?”

“Jahum
didn’t create this universe, only the stars.”

“Still.”

“It’s
our universe’s flaws that made us what we are, death is a natural part of our
universe. Our imperfect little universe, slowly consuming us. You’re not like
the other ascended, you can help me,
you
can help us
and the universe. I found a way to fix it, to fix it and
it’s
flaws. If you join me we can save our universe.
Imagine a place without pain, without destruction, I can make it with your
help.”

Leif
stretches out his hand to Cole.

“By
killing millions, by destroying my planet!? My home?” Cole yells. Leif pulls
back his hand and looks down at the empty city below. His home-world, his city,
the
one he destroyed to get to where he is now.

“It
get’s
easier, when you become a god.”

“I
guess we’re at an impasse.” Cole stiffens up.

“Before
we begin, can you tell me why, besides my people attacking Earth, do you want
to stop me? When I can save the universe, when you don’t want to live anyway.”

How
did he know that? That he really didn’t want to live. He would never thought he
would ask that, definitely not by the thing standing in front of him.

“Because…Jahum
saved me. And my wife. And he told me whatever you are trying will not work.”

“Beware
the false idols.”

Cole
powers up. He’s done talking, he’s made up his mind. His spheres spin
majestically around him. Cole shoots forward.

Leif
smiles.

They
swing at each other, testing their opponent. Leif pushes Cole back. Cole swings
up and sends ten of his spheres flying at Leif.

Leif
simply puts his hand up and halts the spheres. Cole tries to call them back but
they don’t budge. Leif grabs one of them and cups it in his hand.

“No!
Wait—“

Leif
crashes down. Cole screeches out. The spheres explode in a puff of light and
Cole falls to his knees.

“What
did you do!?” Cole asks as he slowly gets to his feet.

“Join
us or I will wipe you from this plane of existence.”

“What
about my race? My wife? You expect me to abandon them!?”

“They’re
needed casualties. In the end we all are Cole, my people are all ready to
sacrifice themselves for the greater good for when that time comes. I can save
us, our universe through the
starkiller
, your planet
will be the first to begin the effort.”

“I
won’t let you wipe us out!” Cole flies for him. Leif waves his hand around the
other nine spheres and groups them up in front of him.

“My
guess is that Jahum told you that these are a part of you. He was right.” Leif
squeezes down hard on them.

“
Noo
!”

The
spheres explode in a flash of light. Cole collapses hard and hurls. The mess
falls right through the floor and down to the city below.

It
feels like a part of him was just forcibly ripped away, a part of him he didn’t
even know he had but a part of him that he needs.

“But
he forgot to tell you that it’s a measure of your power. Every ascended has
them,” Leif claims.

Hundreds
of thousands of small
sunlike
spheres flicker around
Leif, coating the sky.

“The
stronger you are the more you can call and the more powerful you are, the more
integrated they become. At a certain level they disappear, becoming one with
the air, but the power and the strength is still there.”

Leif
starts to walk toward Cole. Cole crawls back.

“Why?
Why do you have to be so narrow-minded when you can help the greater good? Are
humans that selfish?”

“No—“

Leif
flicks his finger. Cole is lifted into the air. “I won’t,” Cole says struggling
in his invisible grasp.

“Why
listen to Jahum, your so called savior, just because he’s the first outer being
you’ve met? When he’s the one who caused the pain you’re feeling, the lives
your people lost. It’s his fault your planet is in flames and yet you continue
to deny me?” There’s a hint of anger on Leif’s face.