Spires

Reality shuddered.

Two spaces fought to fill one.

Such were Domains.

Strength determined fidelity.

One from a powerful user could completely overwrite objective reality.

While one from a lesser user was more a ghost viewed from the corner of the eye.

Alin stood in Chamber 3. He sat in a ringside chair.

In front of him was a blasted landscape of burning, broken trees and torn craters from the metal floor. In front of him was an elevated ring enclosed by thick ropes in red, white and blue from top rope to bottom.

He had never gotten an explanation why it was called a ring when it was clearly a square.

Worse still was how people, like his dad or Jayde, familiar with the ancient Earthian sport called it the ‘squared circle’.

At least the Octagon from a different old sport actually had eight sides.

He wasn’t alone in the arena.

Faceless ghosts cheered or booed.

He found the others… the real people…

His mom and Kynnro sat and stood on the other side of the ring, higher up in the stands.

Tabitha and Adrian were to the left side of the ring from his perspective. They were a few rows closer than he was. Right behind faceless commentators.

He didn’t see Hayden, but Drake was there, standing at the apron behind Jayde’s corner.

The arcane fist bounced lightly on her toes, shadow boxing.

Reality flickered.

Jayde was clad in her armor, not the sports bra and shorts she had just—

Domain reasserted.

Jayde punched blue boxing gloves together.

Her Skill struggled to sink in against the inherent power of Suiteonemiades.

Alin’s heart threatened to burst out of his chest.

The Domain was meant to equalize combat. To strip everything from the combatants except their natural physical selves. Within the ring, for the duration of a 12 round fight they were as they would be in a world without the spires.

The demigod was a demigod.

Could he be separated from the divinity within him?

Not likely.

Even if that was possible, he was still over 7 feet tall. A mountain of muscle with a millennia of violent existence.

What was that old adage the old people liked to say?

10,000 hours to master a skill?

Suiteonemiades had lived long enough to master boxing for a hundred Earthian life times.

In comparison, Jayde was over 40, though she looked and moved a decade younger. She was fit and strong. A great athlete by Earth standards. She wasn’t a big woman. And the swell of belly was more obvious now that she didn’t appear in her armor.

A single punch from the demigod’s ham-sized fist to the gut—

Alin pushed that thought away.

Jayde’s eyes scanned the arena, falling on Alin and the others one by one. “Guys. I appreciate the support, but what’s with the watching? This is the big distraction. Get the hell out of here!” She lingered on Drake. “Sorry again, honey. I hope you can forgive me. Please get Hayden away from here and… tell our babies mommy loves them and will always watch over them. If I can come back as a good ghost, I’ll do it, but maybe don’t tell them that until they’re older.”

“This is crazy, Jayde! Don’t do this!” Drake pleaded.

She made shooing motions toward Alin and the others, before leaning through the ropes to plant a hard kiss on her husband’s lips.

Drake reached for her as if to drag her from the ring, but his hands simply slipped off her arms.

“I’m not leaving you!” he snapped.

“It might turn out fine. 12 rounds. If I can drag it out then that could be close to an hour. Hooray last minute rescues! If not, then maybe I can break through a limit, gain some levels, boxing a demigod has got to be a super challenge. I might get a Skill or spell perfect for this scenario.” She shrugged.

Alin’s mom left her seat, carrying Kynnro as she climbed the steps toward the exits.

Tabitha and Adrian didn’t move.

Neither did Drake.

Alin pushed the gray, wrapping the ring and the demigod in his cloudy blanket.

Nothing.

Though Jayde’s Domain flickered it maintained a strong enough hold to stifle his efforts.

The ghost of a referee beckoned the two boxers into the center of the ring.

His words were garbled gibberish to Alin, but not to Jayde and Suiteonemiades.

“Interesting. Once again I’m struck by the similarities in human cultures across different worlds. This is familiar and I seem to know the rules of your world’s version.” The demigod loomed like an ancient redwood over a spring sapling. “A powerful Skill. Over Level 50? Perhaps, it would be more accurate to say close to Level 60. It’s a sh—”

Jayde slammed her red gloves into the demigod’s gold gloves. “Shut up and box!”

The ghost referee spoke, echoing her in incomprehensible words.

The boxers popped their mouthguards in place and went back to their corners.

A conjured tree collapsed, but the sound came from far away.

The bell to start the fight rang loud and clear.

“Drake?” Alin stood. He could almost hear grumbling from the faceless ghosts seated behind him. “Is Hayden near you?”

“What? Yeah, she’s out, but she’s lying right here.”

“Guys. We should go. Listen, it’s a boxing match not a battle. Jayde’s Domain enforces the rules, right? So, it’s… not safe, but safe-er.” He made his way through the row. It was disorienting to feel the tangible presence of cheering fans one moment and nothing but empty seats the next. “If we clear out, he’ll have no reason to kill her.” He didn’t mention the baby.

“No way!” Drake snapped. “I’m not leaving them alone with that bastard.”

“Same,” Tabitha said.

Adrian growled.

Alin rounded the end of his row, glancing up at the action in ring.

The demigod dwarfed a heavyweight, but moved lightly like a flyweight.

He probed with jabs that Jayde weaved under to land fast counters to his chiseled abs and sides.

She had to punch up to keep her gloves above his belt.

Landing blows on his chin and face seemed an impossible puzzle to solve.

Jumping uppercuts and flying punches didn’t work particularly well when not powered by Skills, magic or other outside assists, like, say boot jets.

“3 minutes a round. She’s moving around like she wants to use up every last second of every round.” That didn’t seem like a lot of time, but having spent time in a ring, an octagon, a wrestling map, a circle of dirt or grass. A handful of minutes could feel like an eternity when one was gassed. Conversely, they could pass in a blink of the eye if one was chasing points. “That’s a lot of time to get distance and get help. If we’re all out of here then he’s got no reason to kill her.” He repeated the plea. “You heard him. Drake, you can stay. My dad can get you later.”

“That was my thinking,” Drake said.

“But I think the rest of us would make things harder for the bastard if we weren’t here when this ends.”

“I can grab Jayde once her Skill ends and take her through the shadow realm if Drake can distract him,” Tabitha said.

“Adrian?”

The hybrid, Black Cat growled low, deep in his throat.

A loud clang sounded, but not from the ring where Jayde spun around to the demigod’s back after a combination to his gut.

“He got his fur up. I smacked him out of it,” Tabitha explained.

“Sorry,” Adrian said. “What do you want me to do?”

“I left Frequency here,” he sent their location. “Can you carry them to the emergency bunker?”

“Yeah.” Adrian rose from his seat and stalked toward one of the exits.

Alin tried to reach his mom.

“I can’t get my mom, but she’s got Kynnro and will be making her way out of here.”

It’d probably take some time for his mom to navigate through the debris-strewn chamber, likely sticking to the edges and behind cover as much as possible to avoid drawing the demigod’s attention since she was his main hostage target.

He finally made his way to Jayde’s corner.

Hayden was on the ground. Vitals mostly red with some yellow.

Drake had already placed the medical unit on her chest and it beeped away as it did its job.

Alin lifted her.

Light as a baby thanks to the artificial muscles in his power armor, the stolen strength from the monsters and his own baseline strength.

“I’ll be—”

“Don’t. Unless its with one of our biggest guns. I’m staying cause she’s my wife and our ba—” Drake shook his head. “Don’t worry. It’ll work out. We always pull it out in the end.” The smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Alin navigated his way down an aisle that flickered in and out of existence with every step.

Hayden’s head lolled, forcing him to shift her to keep it supported

The ten second warning clacked, signaling the end of the first round.

The crowd erupted.

He couldn’t help but stop and turn.

Jayde bobbed and weaved underneath crushing hooks to launch a flurry on the demigod’s midsection.

Left hook to the liver. Right to the gut.

Punches in bunches.

She was looking to cement the round with activity.

Suiteonemiades landed a clubbing hook that she was already moving away from.

The impact thudded on her glove and sent her nearly sprawling to the other side of the ring.

The ropes saved her from tumbling out.

The faceless ref jumped between the two boxers to signal the end of the round.

Significant strikes versus volume.

The scoring would hinge on what the faceless judges decided took precedence—

Alin frowned.

The Skill had sucked him in.

For a moment he almost forgot that this wasn’t a boxing match.

He hurried toward the arena exit— the secret tunnel to the emergency bunker.

The hidden door slid open at a cybernetic thought.

Once it slid shut behind him the Domain’s effects vanished.

Like waking from a vivid dream or transitioning out from one of his dad’s mindscapes.

He bounded down the tunnel. Microthrusters lengthened each stride multiple meters.

His mom and Kynnro were nowhere in sight. Their ident tags were absent from the HUD. Silence was the only answer when he tried them on the comms.

Adrian and Frequency were likewise out of contact.

Blast doors and shields opened in anticipation of his passage.

Guards waved him through.

“Medics? Healer? Anyone?”

One waved him over.

He recognized the older woman, but blanked on her name.

They had set up a triage area in the northwest section of the emergency bunker.

“This way.”

He followed her past several curtained sections.

Magic healing, technological and a mixture of the two filled the air with beeps and a veritable rainbow of color.

Blackstar.

Dayana.

Many others.

Casualties of the battle above ground.

Relief flooded him when he saw that Adrian had already brought Frequency.

The Threnosh was already receiving treatment.

At the doctor’s instruction, he placed Hayden in a medical unit.

The bed was made for the field, which meant it lacked full features.

“Her armor’s systems are screwed, I’ll—”

“We can handle it from here,” the doctor said.

Sure enough the medical team worked quickly and efficiently with the exact tools they needed to get Hayden out of her ruined armor.

“Thanks…”

The doctor grunted.

Alin caught Adrian’s eye.

“Let’s go.”

They rushed back through the tunnel.

Still no sign of his mom or Kynnro.

Comms answered with static.

No ident tags in the HUD.

Out of the tunnel and back into Chamber— the arena.

Faceless girls wearing bikinis for some reason paraded in the ring holding up a number on a card.

7.

What?

The clock in his HUD adamantly told him that they had been gone for less than 5 minutes.

Jayde rose from her corner without the bounce in her steps. She shook her arms as if trying to get rid of lead weights Alin couldn’t see. Her face resembled a canvas painted with dark blues, purples and red from the demigod’s blunt brushes. Her swollen belly was unmarred aside from glistening streaks of sweat.

Suiteonemiades had no issues punching a pregnant woman in the face, but apparently had a line he wasn’t willing to cross.

At the other corner, the demigod stood like a silent statue. The man had no need for a stool, nor the ice bags and water from his faceless corner men. The only sign of exertion was a faint sheen of sweat on his midnight black skin.

“Shit! They skipped a bunch. How many rounds are there in this thing?” Adrian said.

“I’m not sure. 10 or 12, but that’s in the old real life version. I’d guess its up to Jayde in her domain, but I wouldn’t rule out the demigod being able to do something about that.”

“Yeah. It’ll end right away if he knocks her out and it’s not looking good.”

“We have to find my mom.” He scanned the arena. Simultaneously empty and silent while being filled with thousands of cheering fans without faces.

“Creepy, so creepy,” Adrian shook his head.

“Can you get a scent?”

“No. It’s weird, I keep smelling other people and food and beer and weed.” The hybrid had openings for his ears. “Can’t hear her either.”

“She’ll stick to the walls to keep as much distance and obstacles between her and the demigod. You go left and I’ll go right.”

Alin moved along what he thought was the chamber’s wall while occasionally looking at the fight in the ring.

The demigod loomed over Jayde like the enemy boxers in that one ancient Nintendo game his dad had spent time and resources his mom had called a waste. She had been of the opinion that there was no point in refurbishing an original console and cartridge when it could have been ported into a computer with a fraction of the time and effort. His dad had countered that it wasn’t a real effort on his part since he could multitask, handling dozens of projects at the same time without sacrificing quality.

The demigod plodded forward, purposefully making the ring smaller with each step while Jayde tried to circle away from the ropes and the corners.

The demigod covered ground deceptively quick owing to his huge stride length. He threw out lazy jabs and straights like boar hunter probing with a long spear.

Jayde had done exceptionally well to take the fight into the 7th round with the ungodly amount of punishment displayed on her face. However, the outcome had been written.

The end came quickly as it sometimes did with the shock of a lightning bolt out of dark sky.

A hook from a boxing glove as big as her head clubbed her.

She folded up instantly.

Cheering erupted.

Confetti fell.

The ringside announcer went mad with excitement.

The Domain vanished with her consciousness.

“An interesting diversion. But ultimately fruitless.” The demigod stood as he had entered, towering over Jayde’s still form. “For, I see that you didn’t use her distraction wisely.”

Alin followed Suiteonemiades’ gaze right to his mom and Kynnro, who were a few meters away from the hidden door to the real secret tunnel.

His mom placed Kynnro on the floor.

Somehow, he had missed them.

They had passed each other blinded by the Domain’s effects.

Suiteonemiades charged.

Kynnro fired a laser beam with the dregs of their trueskin’s energy.

Black palm swallowed red light.

His mom dumped her power armor’s remaining weapons into the demigod.

Alin felt like he was moving through honey.

Golden light swallowed the two.

The smoke cleared at the demigod’s thunder clap, which slammed his mom into the wall and scattered the ashes that remained from Kynnro.

Drake hurled javelins and struck with a spear only to be swept aside with a lazy backhand.

Tabitha emerged from the shadows, stabbing and ripping with tooth daggers and cloak claws.

Suiteonemiades caught her by the wrists and pulled.

She snarled in his face.

The sounds of ligaments, muscles and flesh tearing nearly drowned out her scream.

Adrian roar turned into a yowl as the demigod ignored the vicious mauling to snap limbs without regard for the hybrid’s Threnium armor.

Alin hit the demigod in the back. Hardlight blade shattered.

“Only a trihorn in rutting season would continue to ram headfirst after he broke his horns and cracked his bone frill.”

Alin didn’t see the hit that sent him down the dark corridor.

He woke up a dozen meters away from where the demigod held his mom aloft with one huge black hand around the back of her neck and the other around both her legs.

Her armor smoked, having had layers ablated off by the demigod’s golden blast.

“I have been more than reasonable. Others would not offer honorable treatment. They’d take since you’ve proved incapable of stopping them. Not only have I offered dignity, I did so multiple times. It is not my preference, but centuries of experience have taught me that the compliance brutality brings tends to be short-lived. Unfortunately, your continued refusal has left me no other choice. Plus, if you are unable to walk then you will be unable to provide meaningful resistance.”

So said, the demigod brought Alin’s mom down on bended knee.

The crack echoed through Chamber 3, implanting itself in Alin’s memory where it would stay with him until the end of his life.

A spire of stone erupted from beneath the demigod, separating him from Alin’s mom.

Jayde, face purpled, bent nose leaking red, had fist to floor.

“He knocked me down, but I ain’t heard no bell.”

Alin had heard the ghostly bell ringing, but he wouldn’t contradict her, nor the fire in her eyes.

“Grab your mom, Boy. She’s what he wants and I’m not about to let him get what he wants easily. Not after what he’s done today.”

Adrian wasn’t moving.

Tabitha’s life leaked from her torn shoulder. She caught Alin’s eye and mouthed something he couldn’t decipher.

Drake was nowhere in sight.

Kynnro… Kynnro was gone.

“Either I surpass my limits and get that last second power up or…” Jayde didn’t finish. She simply rolled her shoulders.

“This is not a fight in the ring with rules!” Suiteonemiades landed with a crash behind them.

Alin sprinted for his mom, while Jayde punched air, creating a high velocity spread of stone spikes like buckshot.

She split a golden beam with an uppercut, splitting it like a river with a wedge of conjured stone.

A dive roll took her out of the demigod’s charge path.

Another punch turned a wide swathe of broken stone into missiles that exploded with concussive force on impact, forcing the demigod back several steps.

Jayde punched the floor, launching herself on a pillar of stone.

Fist boomed against face.

Light and heat flashed a shockwave across the chamber that forced Alin to hold on to his mom lest she be blown into the wall.

Jayde flurried with spells at the end of her fists, each restricted to damaging with physical force rather than more esoteric effects.

The demigod struck.

Fist met fist.

Golden light cracked bones.

Jayde countered with a snapping jab up to the demigod’s face.

Foam spread rapidly like the fungal touch of a deep cave shambler.

The demigod’s eyes widened as he ripped at the conjured substance.

A second was all it took to engulf his entire head.

But, he didn’t give her time to catch her breath.

Gold light vaporized.

He raised a fist, flaring gold through his fingers.

A javelin struck, forcing him to release the divine energy before he was ready.

Gold rays lanced out in all directions.

Alin took one on his arm, losing layers of armor, but protecting his mom, whose armor was in worse shape.

Jayde stumbled as a ray raked across her front, carving a deep line in her chestplate.

She landed on her butt.

The demigod leapt.

A javelin skimmed the ground, coming to a stop in midair just above Jayde.

She grabbed it and vanished with a pop just before the demigod cratered the floor.

Drake cradled his wife in the upper branches of a burning redwood.

A golden blast screeched across the chamber.

Drake pulled yet another spear from one of his bags of holding straight into his hand with a Skill.

He spun up a magic shield to tank the blast long enough for him to teleport the two of them elsewhere a moment before the demigod’s chopping kick felled the massive tree.

Jayde punched a point-tipped tree into existence.

Drake touched it as she launched it like a missile skimming an arm’s length from the floor.

What was a spear?

A stick with a point.

It didn’t matter if it was made out of wood, stone or metals.

At least that was how Drake conceptualized it.

Pedantic sorts would protest, but sometimes reality was subjective.

All the proof Drake needed was his spells and Skills worked on it.

Booms shook the chamber, triggering the auditory protections in their helmets.

Kinetic force increased exponentially compared to one of Drakes standard javelins.

Suiteonemiades met the missile with a punch.

Wood vaporized and broke, showering them in jagged splinters.

The demigod was driven back into the northwest section of Chamber 3.

Wife and husband combined their abilities again to fire a second tree spear.

This time toward the ceiling.

Metal tore, releasing the trap she had Bolder prepare several minutes ago, though it felt like hours.

Earth compacted impossibly dense with magic crashed down on the demigod.

An enormous pile driver nearly a hundred meters long, all the earth between the chamber’s roof and the surface, slammed down. It dwarfed the hundred ton megaliths one could find at many ancient sites across the planet. Those testaments to the ingenuity of humanity would’ve looked like children’s toys next to the result of Bolder’s magic.

Jayde whooped.

“And that’s the end of th—”

The chamber rumbled.

A squeal of protest from the metal floor filled the shocked silence.

The super megalith scattered dust as, impossibly, it began to move.

Suiteonemiades stood revealed with a rictus snarl.

Muscles flexed like steel cables underneath midnight black skin.

Golden light shined from his eyes and coated him in a faint sheen.

The demigod pressed what must’ve been easily over a thousand tons. He reached full extension with perfect form, holding the immense mass of dense-packed earth up with both arms for a long moment before bending arms and knees. An explosion of godly might pushed the mass high enough for him to dive out of the way.

Alin jumped.

Rather the floor bucked him like an angry bull from the impact.

“Good trap.” Suiteonemiades rolled boulder-like shoulders. “That would’ve been the end of 90% of the demigods I know. It would’ve even claimed many of whose portfolios lay claim to physical strength. I commend you.” He moved in a blur, scattering dust and, yes, Alin’s ineffective fog in his wake.

Drake leapt in front of Jayde with a thrusting spear.

A big black hand snapped the solid metal like a bamboo skewer.

The other hand snapped over Drake’s head, helmet and all, like a bear trap.

Suiteonemiades lifted him off the floor as easily as one picks up an empty plastic bag.

“A worthy effort. I promise that your names and deeds here today will be recorded for all eternity or until the pantheon archives are destroyed.” He shrugged. “Nothing truly lasts forever, despite what the Gods may say.”

Alin couldn’t hear anything over the pounding in his chest.

His mom pushed herself up with one hand. Her lower half lay limp on the floor, but that didn’t stop her from firing force blasts into the demigod’s back until she finally ran out of power.

Drake produced a spear in his hands and thrust into the demigod’s face.

The impact sounded like sudden thunder, but the demigod merely bit the spear tip off.

The gray… the gray did nothing.

Why? Damn you! Why aren’t you working?

Where was the dreaded fog that could strip even his dad and uncle of their powers?

Why couldn’t he even get the demigod to notice it?

Threnium squealed as it crumpled around Drake’s head with the grinding inevitability of a glacier moving down a mountainside.

Jayde leapt in with scream.

She cracked the demigod’s elbow.

Her biggest booming punch to free her husband, but desperation created carelessness.

And she had always been reckless.

All the way back to the beginning when she hadn’t cared much about the outcome, just so long as she met every monster and evil men with over a hundred percent of her best. So that when she finally saw her father again, she could say that she had truly left nothing in the ring.

A husband, then children, tempered that some, but it had never been completely buried.

Like the demigod had said.

Nothing lasted forever.

A simple punch, almost lazy, low uppercut to the stomach.

Suiteonemiades had to crouch to throw it because he towered over her.

Golden light framed the midnight black demigod’s back.

Alin didn’t see it land.

He heard the scream of tearing metal.

Saw Jayde’s vitals in his HUD go black.

Saw the scorched void in her midsection as the demigod moved to one side and she fell to the other.

Her eyes locked on his. Her mouth moved.

“I’m dead, Boy. I’ve still got some left. Take it. I’m giving you permission. Use it. Don’t let this fuck win.”

He couldn’t process, couldn’t comprehend.

“Sorry, honey. Take care of our babies. I’m sorry… my ba—”

Unblinking eyes stared into Alin’s soul.

Tears.

Hers joined the pool of red leaking from her mouth to smear the inside of her faceplate

His tasted bitter on his lips.

“Boy?” Tabitha lay in a pool of her own. Red pulsing from the ragged tear at her shoulder with every beat of her heart. Slowing with every passing second. “Take mine too.”

“No!” he snapped.

What was wrong with them?

So eager to die and give him their souls, their essences.

There was no way he’d trap them in the gray like his relatives.

“So much unnecessary death.” Suiteonemiades approached. His steps echoed like doom’s hammer as he stepped over Jayde and Drake. The latter stirred weakly, reaching out to the former. “Nila Cruces. This is your responsibility. All these lives and one yet to be are on your hands.”

“Shut up!” Alin stood in high guard with his multi-weapon configured into a longsword. His comfort weapon. “You did all that. You chose to kill.”

“From your perspective, but I’ve learned that the only perspective that counts in the end is that of the victor.” The demigod regarded him a moment. “Show me your face, young man. Tell me your name so that I may included you in the histories. You’ve been brave, if over matched. A shame your journey will end here due to one woman’s intransigence.”

Alin kept his faceplate dark.

He resolved to give the demigod nothing except his hardlight blade.

Black fist broke yellow light.

Stolen strength surged into a stomp to a black knee.

Black hand slapped.

Lights dimmed.

World spun.

Floor hit.

The demigod stepped over Alin as he tried to rise.

His gut clenched, bile rising to his mouth.

His mom glared defiantly at the obsidian tower casting a wide shadow over her.

“Your back shall remain broken until you show that you are amenable to becoming a proper hostage. Distasteful, but it will encourage compliance.” The demigod glanced back. “You, young man, are charged with this message. Tell your lord, Cal Cruces, that I shall contact him within the week to negotiate terms for Nila Cruces’ return. I promise she shall be treated honorably so long as I hold the reins. Granted, I’m no oracle that sifts through the skeins of the future, so I can’t promise that will continue. The pantheon can be fickle and I may be replaced by another demigod at their whim. And, I say this without arrogance, I am judged to be an exemplar of virtue among my kind.”

The demigod picked Alin’s mom off the floor as though she was a discarded doll.

A golden portal opened with agonizing slowness.

The demigod let out a sigh.

“I would like to meet whomever is responsible for the aegis protection your holdings. I’ve never had to work this hard before. A thousand years and I find such powerful magic on a newborn world. I suppose that’s another thing I can attribute to a Terminus World.”

Alin tasted iron.

The chamber spun every time he tried to rise on limbs that refused to listen to him.

A roar split the chamber.

An animal sound filled with pain and rage in equal parts.

A dark shape flew through the air above Alin.

He felt him through the gray.

A presence… no!

Two presences he had given up for dead!

Except… hope died as quickly as it had bloomed.

It was only a death temporarily deferred for one of them.

The demigod dropped Alin’s mom to meet the next challengers.