The Beginning of the End (Universe in Flames Book 4) (25 page)

Can’t you bring another moment of grief to the surface? Perhaps something more fresh, that you haven’t really dealt with yet, like the fact you couldn’t save Fillio? I can sense the bottled frustration within you, even though it was not your fault and you know it. She didn’t want to go on. There was nothing you could have done.

That does make me angry and I haven’t really expressed it.

This could work, then. Just focus on that anger and let it blow. I’ll resume normal time now. Hang on to this feeling. Make it grow a little if you have to. Good luck, Chase.

Chase felt Ares consciousness leave him, and as he powered his aura he brought back the memory of losing Fillio, the anger he felt not being able to save her from the claws of death. Chase felt a surge within him but didn’t feel that spark he was looking for.

Got to dig deeper, I guess. Here goes nothing.

He then brought the memory of Yanis telling how he hated him. He felt his anger, frustration and self-hatred grow and something in him snapped.

When he opened his eyes his aura was no longer glowing purple but orange. He could feel his hair flowing on top of his head. His muscles tightened and he felt a jolt of pure energy flow through his veins, amplifying every one of his senses and bringing a tremendous amount of power for his disposal.

Arkoolis was already flying back towards Chase, an expression of utter madness on his face. But it all seemed to happen in slow motion. Chase saw his attack coming a mile away and then some. As the general threw a powerful, fireball-enhanced right hook, Chase moved his head out of the way and grabbed the general’s wrist. He snapped it with little effort and heard bones break.

The general screamed from the pain and took three steps back.

Before he could react, Chase was all around him, phasing in and out of thin air at such speeds the general had trouble following him with his eyes. Every time he thought he saw him, Chase was well into his next move.

The general flailed his good arm, trying to hit Chase but hitting nothing but air.

“Who’s the low-class Fury now?” said Chase, before appearing yards in front of the general.

He disappeared again, and when he reappeared right in front of him, he hammered Arkoolis with a single punch. He heard facial bones crack under the pressure of his punch. Blood flew from both his nose and mouth, and a few teeth flew out.

Chase didn’t let the general hit the ground. Before that happened he had already created an extremely powerful fireball with crackling, purple lightning bolts dancing around it. He threw the attack at the general’s torso. The impact was devastating. The general’s armor blew up as if it was made of glass and he crashed onto his back. Smoke rose from Arkoolis’ burned and bloody rib cage.

Chase walked towards the general and caught a glimpse of fear in his eyes.

Arkoolis got back up and unleashed a flurry of powerful fireballs at Chase. The multiple explosions lit up the valley one after the other. The sheer power in these attacks would have taken out a city. But when Chase walked through the flames unscathed, the general could not believe it.

“This is not possible,” said Arkoolis.

Chase launched himself at Arkoolis and planted his knee deeply into his enemy’s stomach. Blood shot from his mouth as he staggered a few steps back, blood still dripping from his mouth.

“What are you?” he spat.

“You tell me. I thought I was just a low-class Fury. Then again, I didn’t buy into that bullshit of yours about classes.”

The general cast two basketball-sized black fireballs in each of his hands. Red, crackling lightning shot between them. He merged them together and shot a column of dark energy towards Chase, but it hit nothing but air. Chase was already behind Arkoolis.

“Game over,
General
,” said Chase, before thrusting his right fist through the general’s back. It burst through the Fury’s ribcage as if it was made of silk paper. Bones and blood were thrown outwards from the power and speed at which Chase’s hand had traveled through the Fury’s rib cage. The last thing the general saw was his own heart stop beating in Chase’s bloody hand. Chase squeezed it into nothingness and forcefully removed his arm from the general’s back. Arkoolis was dead long before his corpse hit the ground.

Then Chase heard Ryonna’s voice in his head.

He reacted instantly and vanished into thin air.

*   *   *

Inside the
Valken
the gravitational forces prevented Ryonna and Ronan from moving. She had grabbed him by the collar the moment the ship lost control. He in turn had grabbed his friend, not ready to let him be crushed against the nearby bulkheads.

Ryonna felt a sensation that she hardly knew. She was terrified by the sound of the engines and the disorienting G-forces that pulled on them from every direction. She had just laid eyes on her son after all these hours of worrying whether or not he was alive, and their ship was about to crash onto the planet’s surface.

She closed her eyes and only one thought came to mind.
Chase, please help us.

The
Valken
crashed into the middle of a forest and uprooted many trees as it skidded along and emerged into a clearing. Smoke rose from the damaged ship’s engines.

When Ryonna opened her eyes, she felt a tremendous pain in her right arm. The one that had held onto Ronan’s collar with every last bit of energy and strength. It had dislocated upon impact, but she never let go, even when she eventually lost consciousness.

Ronan was still unconscious, and she feared that Arknon couldn’t possibly have survived the rough landing.

She was still holding Ronan’s collar, even though they were both on the floor. She checked her son’s pulse and found one. His shoulder wound bled alarmingly. She tried waking him up but was unsuccessful. Smoke from a nearby conduit filled the cargo hold at an alarming rate.

“Keera! Can you please open the
Valken
’s cargo-hold ramp? Keera! Please respond?”

But there was no answer. She was probably also unconscious or worse. But Ryonna couldn’t be everywhere at once, so she needed to focus on the most pressing issue and that was to get some much needed air inside the cargo hold, before the ever-thickening layer of smoke choked them all to death.

She crawled towards the nearest console, ignoring the throbbing pain, and tried opening the cargo-hold ramp, but she was unsuccessful and sparks from the damaged console shot into her eyes. When that failed she crawled towards the manual release.

She popped the lid, grabbed the mag-lock release handle and pulled on it. She then rotated it counterclockwise for forty-five degrees and pushed it back in. More smoke was released from the grinding emergency hydraulics systems, but soon the ramp jerkily lowered towards the ground, revealing the large and long trail of dirt the ship had created upon landing, as well as a gap in the tree line.

The smoke vented from the opening and fresh Droxian air filled the cargo hold. Ryonna decided to check on Keera. She would need her help to revive Ronan and tend to Arknon. That is, if he was still alive. But the moment she was back on her feet and walking towards the cockpit, she heard a loud noise behind her.

She turned around and her blood froze.

There stood Miseo. He had a huge gash on the left side of his face, no doubt from the
Valken
ramming into him.

His eyes were bloodshot and he looked utterly mad. His teeth were clenched. Thin lines of blood showed between them.

“You’re gonna pay for this, you scumbags.”

He raised his left hand and opened his palm towards interior of the shuttle. A red fireball was created out of thin air.

Ryonna grabbed her blaster with her good hand and shot towards Miseo, but the blasts never reached him.

He had stopped them with his mind. In the meantime, Miseo’s fireball grew to soccer-ball size.

Then Ryonna’s motherly instinct kicked in and she lurched forward to cover Ronan. She didn’t care if that made a difference or not. In the middle of her jump she saw someone’s knee impact with Miseo’s face. The impact was so violent that the Fury flew out of view at an impossible speed, just as he fired his fireball towards the inside of the ship. It went higher than intended and burned through the ceiling of the cargo hold as if it was made of plastic, letting more daylight into the ship.

Ryonna adjusted her landing at the last moment and instead of landing on top of her son she rolled forward. That’s when she saw him.

“Chase!”

“Sorry I couldn’t get here any faster. Are you alright, Ryonna? Anyone need healing? This guy,” said Chase, pointing his thumb in the direction of the Fury, “will be back very soon. And probably even more pissed than he was before.”

Her entire face lit up and she pointed at Arknon. “I think Ronan is just unconscious but his friend over there . . .”

Chase moved so fast that Ryonna felt a strong current pass her. By the time she had finished pointing at Arknon, Chase was already healing the Droxian commander.

“His wounds are critical. Another few seconds and he would have been beyond my help,” said Chase. It painfully reminded him of his failure to save Fillio earlier.

Keera stumbled into the cargo hold, her entire face covered with blood. She tripped on some equipment that had fallen during descent. Before she hit the deck she was in Chase’s hand. He healed her in less than a second.

“He’s coming back,” said Chase, sensing the approach of Miseo.

“What about Ronan?”

Chase shot a bolt of white light at Ronan’s body. It startled Ryonna, and she was about to complain when she saw all his wounds recede and his eyes started blinking. Before she could say thank you, Chase was already flying out of the shuttle, but he rotated in midair and shot yet another white bolt of light at Ryonna, who felt the weirdest sensation. Her arm relocated itself into her shoulder socket and all pain vanished.

“That’s new. Thanks Chase—” But Chase was already outside and fighting with the Fury.

When Saroudis landed his shuttle at the rendezvous coordinates Daniel had given him, a few hundred yards beyond the cabin where his family had found refuge, he ran towards his daughter the moment the back ramp had been lowered. A terrifying growl stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Reaper! Watch your manners. That’s my father you’re growling at. Stop it at once!”

The wolfen understood from the tone that he had been unwise in his overzealous attempt at protecting Sendra and took a few steps back, lowering his muzzle and gaze to the ground.

Sendra ran the rest of the way and jumped into her father’s arms.

Daniel looked at the scene with a smile on his face. The commodore was crying tears of joy as he kissed his daughter on her face and hair. Daniel could read in his eyes that he still couldn’t believe what was happening.

“I’m still unsure if this is real or if I’m dreaming,” he said as he hugged her tightly, his hand caressing her golden hair.

“I know what you mean, Dad.”

But then Saroudis saw his wife approach.

“Give me a second will you, Sendra,”

She wiped her tears of joy and nodded at him with a beaming smile.

“It’s about time!” Alexandra said in an icy-cold tone.

“Alexandra,” said Saroudis, with more than enough caution in his voice as he approached her.

Daniel didn’t know what would happen next. She looked utterly pissed.

But then she took him in her arms and started crying as well. “The boys . . . I’m so sorry, Adonis, I couldn’t save them.”

Saroudis affectionately patted his wife on her back. “There, there. None of this is your fault. I just wish I was there with you when all hell broke loose.”

Daniel decided it was way past time to go back into his shuttle and let the reunited family have their deserved moment of privacy.

Now was as good a time as any to try to get some news from Fillio. He looked forward to holding her in his arms the same way the commodore had held his wife and daughter.

When he established a channel with the
Hope
and Sarah’s face appeared on his holo-display, he immediately understood that something was wrong.

“Daniel,” she said with watery eyes.

“What is it, Sarah? Is Chase alright?”

“Chase is fine. At least I hope so. He left for Droxia a while ago now and I haven’t had much news since then. But I’m afraid I’m the bearer of very sad news . . .”

Daniel’s heart skipped a beat and before Sarah told him more he knew something had happened to Fillio.

*   *   *

When Miseo returned he was infuriated.

“You’ll regret taking me by surprise!”

“Hello to you as well. Miseo, is it?”

That only further inflamed Miseo and he threw himself at Chase.

Chase dodged Miseo’s first set of attacks with ease. He was still partially in angry mode. He had little difficulty anticipating his enemy’s attacks, and when Miseo least expected it, he planted a powerful, fireball-charged right punch to his stomach. Miseo staggered backwards and his expression changed. He looked really surprised to have been bested so quickly in the fight.

“What the fuck are you? You shouldn’t be able to move that fast.”

“Says who? If you’re thinking of your friend the general, he wished he could come. But at the last minute he had a
change
of heart.”

Miseo took a deep breath and calmed himself.

“Impressive. Argos might have undersold your actual level of power. Fortunately, you’re still no match for me.”

Chase tapped a finger on the right side of his mouth. “You still have a little blood running from your mouth. I hear Fury acid reflux is a bitch.”

Miseo chuckled. “You seem pretty confident. I can already feel that it will be your undoing.”

“Beside my asshole brother, I’ve only met two other Furies, but you guys are walking clichés.”

A vein in Miseo’s right temple started throbbing.

Am I annoying you? Good!

Chase smirked.

Miseo crossed his arms across his chest. “It’s too bad you aren’t fighting on our side, though; you’d be a great ally.”

“I bet you’d think so. Your former friend Arkoolis also voiced his disappointment about which side I chose.”

“Where is general Arkoolis? Your brother told me you are
not
a killer.”

“Afraid I’m gonna have to disappoint you on that one. You and I are the only two remaining Furies on the surface of this planet. The only ones with a beating heart, anyway.”

“General Arkoolis is dead?”

“Afraid so, unless he can regrow the heart I ripped off his chest.”

Miseo frowned.

“My father will be displeased. He was very fond of him.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to attach an apology card when I send him both your heads.”

“Enough! You may have bested the general, but this planet will be your tomb. I will make sure of that.”

“Like I said, walking cliché. But you know what? I’m sure you’ll give it your best. Doesn’t seem to me you’re nearly fast as I am at the moment.”

“My best? Very few adversaries ever lived to see my best. It does look like I might have to push myself more than usual, though. But between you and me, it’s been so long that I find that thought particularly enthralling. General Arkoolis was a great warrior, but there are many more strong Furies still alive today. They are all aching to see this universe burn for what it did to us.”

Miseo grew his aura as he powered up and the entire planet shook. Every stone within a ten-mile radius started levitating upwards.

Looks like he wasn’t kidding when he said he hadn’t shown all he is capable of. I’ll have to tread carefully. I’ve spent a lot of energy in my first fight. I’ll have to be smart in how I manage the rest of it.

Chase extended his consciousness and checked Miseo’s power level. He was still at more than ninety percent.

Yep, definitely not a good sign when one factor’s in that he received a Droxian destroyer full-on not long ago. I had hoped the experience would have drained him much more than that.

Chase also brought more power to the surface. Blue lightning bolts danced and crackled all around him.

He was surprised how naturally he did that nowadays. It briefly reminded him of his first training session with Ares and how difficult and frustrating it had been to access even a slight portion of his power. He had certainly come a long way since then.

Miseo made the first move and sent a powerful black fireball at Chase, who blocked it with his right hand. But something went wrong. Dark-red lightning shot from it and hit Chase on the torso, head and left knee. He lost balance and had to put a knee on the ground. By then Miseo was already upon him and landed his own knee on Chase’s left cheek, which sent him crashing hundreds of yards away, leaving a trail of dust behind him.

Chase got up and wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth.

I guess this is gonna be a tougher fight.

Miseo walked towards Chase with a smirk on his face.

“Still thinking you’re gonna save the day, hero?”

Chase wanted to answer something sarcastic but he knew he was mistaken in thinking that because he dispatched the general, he could take care of Miseo with ease. Clearly these two were in a different category, and this would be the most difficult fight of his life. But he had no choice now. The only way out was to defeat his new adversary, no matter the cost.

Billions had died today on Droxia and Chase knew that it was all his doing. He hadn’t meant to, of course. He hadn’t seen Argos’ bigger picture at the time, but the fact remained: every new life lost on Droxia would be on his hands. He couldn’t reconcile himself with the thought of letting one more person die today because of his actions. While his heart still beat, he would fight to avoid any more casualties.

“You’re fast and powerful, but this fight has only begun.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You’ve spent almost half your energy killing the general. So you’re already dead. It’s just a matter of time. How long do you want your suffering to go on? I can make it quick for you, if you like, if only for the respect I have for the abilities you’ve displayed today. You’re a true warrior, which I frankly did not expect. At least you should be proud of how far you’ve gone before you die.”

“I’m not dead just yet.”

“Very well, shall we continue then?”

Chase answered by adopting an offensive combat stance.

*   *   *

When Saroudis came back on board the
Destiny
with his family, he felt something that he thought he had forgotten in the last few months: hope. They would have to send another fleet here soon and try to locate more survivors, but right now it was time to go to Droxia. Last news they had they were still under attack. The commodore had no doubt that by the time they reached there the main battle would be well over. It was a very long jump, after all.

But that family reunion also meant a real feeling of grief in his heart. His two boys were gone, forever. He would never see Joshua and Ethan again. At first he had been so happy seeing Alexandra and Sendra, but upon returning to the ship he realized the full implications that both his sons were gone, forever. It hit him hard and he had to force himself not to show his emotions.

He didn’t want his crew to see him weak. It wasn’t a matter of pride. Saroudis knew they had all lost everything and everyone they held dear with the fall of the Star Alliance. And he came back on board with part of his family, so he wasn’t sure how showing sadness in that moment would be interpreted. There would be time for grieving later.

He made a conscious choice to bottle up his emotions for the time being and contact the
Hope.

Sarah’s worried image filled the holo-screen.

“Commander? I was expecting Chase.”

“Chase is on Droxia.”

Saroudis looked dubious. “How can he be on Droxia already?”

“Ares beamed him there, or something.”

“Looks like Ares is way more powerful dead than when he was alive.”

“Yeah, it’s disconcerting, I agree, but at least he’s on our side.”

“Do you have a status report on what’s happening there?”

“Sort of. Oh boy, how do I explain this without sounding like a total nut job . . .”

“Sarah, with everything we’ve been witnesses to since we met, I don’t think there’s anything you can say that will surprise me at this point.”

“Alright then. My unborn son appeared to me in a vision. In that vision I was standing on Droxia. The place looked utterly destroyed, leveled really. I got the feeling that billions died today. He told me he needed to send some of his life force to Chase to help him fight the Furies on the surface responsible for all the destruction. Which I guess he did. And to say the whole experience was weird is to put it mildly.”

Saroudis chuckled. “I stand corrected.”

“Tell me about it, sir. I heard you brought your family on board? I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you, Sarah. I . . . It still feels surreal, but I’m overjoyed. I never thought I would see any of them alive. Of course, I’m also grieving for my two boys that weren’t so lucky. It’s one thing thinking your family is dead. It’s another when you know.”

Saroudis wiped a tear from one of his eyes.

So much for bottling up my feelings.

“I’m so sorry to hear that. My condolences, Commodore. At least your wife and daughter made it.”

“Thank you. Yes, it’s already more than I could ever have hoped for.”

“We’ve also lost Fillio today, amongst the hundreds that died onboard the fleet at the same time.”

Saroudis’ expression darkened. So many deaths. And this was just the beginning.

“I’m so sorry to hear that. She was such a kind person.”

“And a great wing commander.”

“We must ready ourselves to lose many more people in the future. This war has only just begun.”

Saroudis saw Sarah’s hand move to her belly. He regretted voicing his last remark. She was probably worried enough as it is, with her unborn son already in contact with them. That had to be scary in and of itself. Then there was the world they would bring the child into. The same world in which he had to try and protect whatever was left of his family. For a brief moment he wondered if perhaps they wouldn’t be safer on the surface of Alpha Prime. He brushed the thought away.

“So, Commodore? Can we jump to Droxia?”

“Absolutely. What’s the status of the
Hope
?”

“The damage is extensive, but she’ll fly. We’ve got power back to seventy-five percent and we should be back to full power by the time we end our jump.”

“Very well, Commander, slave your jump engines to ours. We’ll jump within the next five minutes.”