Spires

They fought in the sky above the Black Hills.

One, a native of the planet, flew under his own power, sending bolts and spikes of invisible force at the other, who flew on brown-feathered wings that had sprouted from the back of his hide armor.

The armor appeared thin and light. Almost as flexible as a cotton shirt, yet it felt like Aehrone’s adamantine armor to Cal.

The silent demigod fired bolts with as much destructive power as the missiles that had failed to reach their destination. He wielded an ethereal crossbow yet had not once drawn back the string, nor loaded a bolt.

Aim, squeeze, loose.

The only limitation was the full second between each shot.

Cal attacked the demigod’s wings with cutting force thinner than a molecule.

Sparks filled the sky.

He closed the distance, jamming the crossbow into the man’s broad chest.

“I know you can speak. Wouldn’t you be rather hunting the rare and powerful monsters and beasts the world events keep dropping on my world? There’s a giant monster the size of mountain wandering around Antarctica in circles. Feel free to give it a shot. If that’s too easy a target for you, demigod of the wild animals, then how about a giant worm treating the African savanna like its own personal sand pit?”

“You already know too much. Psionic Prime. Your kind is legend, bordering on myth. Truly, do you think those common beasts would tempt me when you’re right here?”

The demigod pushed and failed to dislodge Cal.

“What’s your name… at least… I’d feel a little bad if I never got it.”

“I am Elebykiades, Son of Elebyk.”

“God damn. Your so-called gods are real egomaniacs aren’t they.”

“Mock true divinity,” the demigod scoffed. “I’ve taken tongues for less insolence.”

“Truth is truth. It doesn’t care for your feelings. Son of… daughter of… what’s your real name? The one your normal parent gave you before—”

“There is no name beyond the only one that matters.”

Elebykiades’ eyes flashed.

Golden godly energy surged out.

The beams splashed against Cal’s upraised arm.

Temperature warnings beeped, but the Threnium could handle it.

Hot enough to melt steel with enough physical force to send a car tumbling.

The demigod had the latter on Eron, whose own solar eye beams lacked physical impact. But the heat… well, it was like unto a campfire to his brother’s sun.

Cal punched the demigod in the face.

Telekinesis boosted his strength to match the demigod’s.

How strong?

He took Elebykiades’ measure as they wrestled over the ethereal crossbow and traded short punches, snapping elbows and digging knees.

Somewhere in the same vicinity as his father.

What was that in Eron’s idiotic measuring scale?

Class 70? 80?

Aehrone had felt stronger than Elebykiades.

Perhaps it was time to probe deeper and get an accurate number.

He launched his thoughts into the demigod’s.

Resistance was… strong, but ultimately futile.

The divine energy provided a natural barrier that would’ve stopped a lesser psionic cold.

He broke through.

Centuries of life flashed in an instant.

Centuries of life lived in real time.

Both.

Neither.

Elebykiades pressed a massive stone block above his head to the cheers of similarly sized and muscular young men and women.

Class 87.

Elebykiades raced across the grassy plain, overtaking a distant animal that resembled an antelope except with brilliant blue spots to blend in with the grass. A single blow with the edge of his hand felled it instantly.

Just about 320 KMH.

He found the antelope’s speed more impressive.

It easily outpaced the cheetah.

Elebykiades marched through a hail of arrows bare chested.

Elebykiades reaped and pillaged across a dozen worlds, doing all the things that one did in wars of conquest.

He was a good demigod by the standards of his mother.

He was a bad man by Cal’s standards.

Every damning memory laid bare.

Every act a charge to be laid on those broad shoulders.

There was no arguing against it.

No reasonable doubt.

No mitigating circumstances.

Cal had enough.

He released the psychic hold on the demigod’s mind.

“You—”

“You have done some bad things to so many people. It’s sobering really. Humans, Earthians are capable of such things, but they’ve only got decades to do them. You’ve had centuries and gods willing you’ll have more. If only you hadn’t come here.”

The demigod struggled.

Titanic strength didn’t avail him.

“Why does the so-called goddess of wild animals need to go around conquering?”

“You know why?” the demigod spat.

“There’s nothing better than that sweet, sweet, sapient faith. Prayers and worship. That’s how they steal their power. Leeches.”

“Silence!”

The demigod changed tactic, grabbing Cal around the neck.

“Saw it coming.”

Cal vanished.

Rather he had already separated from Elebykiades.

Aehrone’s spear struck the male demigod in the chest.

Hide armor parted a fraction, shedding golden blood in a brief flash of light.

“Apologies, cousin.” Aehrone’s tone suggested that she wasn’t that sorry.

“Suiteonemiades should’ve fought with us.”

“It isn’t our place to question.”

Cal filled their minds with the illusion of many.

30 different Cals to be exact.

Scattered all around them.

“You, Daughter of Aehr, can fly under your own power. Does that mean you are stronger than this sorry Son of Elebyk, who needs magic feathers?”

“Don’t let his words goad you, cousin.”

“Do I seem goaded to you, cousin?”

“Yes.”

“She’s right, you know,” Cal smirked, “you’re quite goaded. Trust me,” he tapped his helmet, “I’m the Psionic Prime.”

Elebykiades growled. “Fecling filth! Tiny—”

“C’mon, dude, I don’t even know what that is,” he lied. It wasn’t even a remotely apt comparison. He was nothing like the small, wriggling, slimy, stinky creatures with a penchant for swimming in fecal matter. Not out of any reason other than that they found it pleasurable.

The sky made a sound like tearing metal followed by the booming crack of thunder.

The southeast horizon darkened as clouds thickened and roiled, moving faster than what was possible in nature.

Thunderbirds were rare and tended to nest in the tallest mountains, but no place was truly out of their reach thanks to their speed. Like an airplane that carried a storm in their wake.

He regarded the demigod’s bag of holding.

That horn was—

Another screech.

Then another and another.

Dark storm clouds rushed toward them from every direction but north.

Each heralded by the massive, magical birds.

His one consolation was that the area was devoid of human population. Only Rapid City had been re-populated.

Those unfortunate settlements in the path of the thunderbirds would have to deal with a sudden and violent storm, but one that would pass just as quickly as it had arrived.

He rose higher into the sky to extend his horizon.

The demigods gave chase.

Aehrone soared with golden light trailing like a comet’s tail.

While Elebykiades surged ahead of her with one mighty flap of his wings.

Twin beams of gold strafed just behind Cal as he weaved and juked like an old fighter plane.

“You’ve got to lead your target!” he called out. “Aim for where I’ll be instead of where I am.”

So said, he stopped suddenly and somersaulted into a vertical dive.

Divine eye beams scorched telekinetic shield.

Armored fist wrapped in the same force crunched into godly nose with a sudden explosion of power as Cal moved the molecules in the air surrounding his fist and the demigod’s face with such violent speed so as to cause a spontaneous combustion.

“Full-faced helmet!” he called down to the falling demigod. “No excuse for us superhuman types that don’t have the same oxygen gathering issues as normal humans. I bet you don’t even need to breathe much, what with the divine blood flowing through you.”

The wind whipped.

A spear shrieked against his back.

Threnium kept coming in clutch against adamantine. Even when the latter was enchanted.

He’d grab their stuff after so that they could do proper comparison tests.

See how it stacked up against mythril.

Was it a rock, paper, scissors deal?

Mythril was slightly lesser than Threnium across most metrics, but took to enchantments like a fish to water compared to well… a chunk of metal.

The next thrust skimmed the side of his helmet.

He hammered Aehrone with invisible fists from all directions.

Her armor continued to hold, but her grunts suggested that the some of the impact got through.

“See… you get it. Full-coverage. Face included. Since we have a moment—”

Which wasn’t true in the least.

She continued to fly at him with her spear, while firing the occasional burst of golden energy as he spoke.

“You seem the more reasonable one. That one down there’s all about the hunt,” he gestured toward Elebykiades struggling to get to his feet out of the crater in the mountain side, “and he’s made up his mind that I’m the ‘prize’. So? Can I convince you to stop and go away?”

“Only the foolish and arrogant speak in the midst of a battle to the death!” she roared and hurled her spear.

The missile went just a bit wide.

Words flowed from her mouth.

Unrecognizable, untranslated.

Aehrone’s form rippled for a split-second.

Reality wavered.

Giant spectral hands tore their way from nothing to clasp over her.

Bells tolled.

A choir sang.

The hands vanished as though they had never been there, as though he had dreamed them.

Aehrone stood in the heart of a giant spectral projection aglow with golden light.

It was her… it wasn’t her…

“Okay… what does that have to do with motherhood?”

“I will stop and leave, but not alone. Swear to serve Aehr with your mind, body and soul for a century and you may petition her for her generosity. One hundred souls you may bring with you or each may chose the paradise to exchange for this war-forsaken world.”

“One soul for one year of service. Is that one of my Earthian years or… because if you’re going to use a different world’s measurement system then I could be getting cheated here.”

“My mother’s core world always sets the standard. Why would it be any other way?”

“I guess that makes sense… so, how’s it compare to here? One to one? Longer? Shorter?”

“It is—” her shining eyes narrowed. “You’ve no intention of accepting Aehr’s generosity.”

“It’s slim, but I might consider it if I had more information and veto power on the specifics of this serving thing. But, something tells me that’s not really a thing with your so-called gods. Besides, I don’t think it’s in me to abandon everyone else.”

“They are doomed. Your cultures are doomed. A Terminus World can never be anything but one of unceasing war as the great powers of infinite worlds strive for a mastery that can never truly be taken.”

“Right. You don’t even believe it can done. Then why even fight?”

“Others will.”

“Prisoner’s dilemma-ish.”

“I give you one last chance to submit. Your power will guarantee honor, glory and the rewards that accompany them. Your people can begin lives in a paradise of their choosing before your sun sets on this day.”

“No. I was the one giving you the last chance to leave and go live in those paradises. You don’t want war. I don’t want war. No proper-thinking person… demigod wants war.”

“War is conflict and conflict is the spires.”

“Yes, but you can chose to refrain or at least not dive in headfirst. You know, maybe just try to keep out of it. Do the self-defense thing if it comes to it. Not this war of aggression garbage. You start one then you have to accept the consequences.”

“I hear the words of a weak-willed man. Unwilling to use his gifts to their logical ends.”

“It’s a personal choice and if I chose to kill you then it will be just that. A choice. Mine. No excuses. No justifications. No rationalizations.”

“As it should be. Only the weak hide from the costs of their decisions.”

“Jesus, you really believe that. Your mother… none of the gods deserve that loyalty. You’re—”

Elebykiades zipped past him.

He had planted the thought in the demigod’s mind that he was a few meters to the right of his actual position.

Blazing speed carried the winged demigod well into the bright blue sky.

“They’re just using you. They dangle potential godhood like a worm on a hook. Those in power never willing share it.”

“Enough parlay. I judge it failed.”

“Thank you for the warning.”

Aehrone thrust her palms out.

Her giant spectral projection copied the motion with a blink’s delay.

A golden beam engulfed Cal.

HUD flashed and beeped as he was driven toward the mountain.

He dived out of the torrent, smoking, Skill-applied blue and yellow-gold paint burned off to reveal the bare matte gray of his armor.

He skimmed the treetops.

Aehrone chased him with her beam, slicing across what was left of Mt. Rushmore and turning the rubble into oozing liquid stone glowing hot.

Trees burned.

The viewing amphitheater.

Avenue of Flags.

Gift shop.

Cafe and ice cream shop.

Parking lots.

The demigod carved a scorched road through everything, rendering the entire complex unrecognizable.

Thick smoke choked the air.

Not that it mattered to the likes of them.

Cal had a myriad of senses.

Aehrone could sharpen hers with an application of divine power.

Burning trees, hundreds of them. Molten stone, thousands of tons of it. Dying and dead monsters.

Cal filled the sky with everything to hide his presence.

Then he located the heaviest concentration of thunderbirds and zoomed toward it.

A murder of crows. An unkindness of ravens. A flock of birds.

A storm of thunderbirds?

Not that they usually gathered in groups.

The name fit, he made a mental note to log it in the official records.

He slowed down to make sure that he hadn’t lost the demigods.

They fought free of his little eruption and gave chase.

Southern California, Spring 2053

Alin drained the soldiers to unconsciousness before they could shoot, landing in their crumpled midst.

The sudden surge of stolen energy filled him like a cup fills an empty pool.

He had lost more of it than expected from helping block the ambassador’s explosion.

The ghost of his relatives felt out of reach at the moment. At least those that had used their forcefields. The rest, those from his grandfather’s side of the family, felt present, lurking in the thin gray streaming out of his armor, but not quite strong enough to come out and help with the battle raging throughout the hotel-casino compound.

The emergency blast doors of the Danger Complex slid open with a hiss.

A squad of Threnosh soldiers emerged.

8 recoilless rifle-wielding standard infantry and 2 heavies with shoulder-mounted cannon. Their armor was marred by dents and tears, blackened by fire.

“Move clear, Boy.”

The parted for Frequency.

The diminutive Threnosh’s armor was in no better condition than the rest. One arm was locked, immobile.

He listened automatically.

As soon as he was out of the way, the Threnosh raised their hand.

Speakers the size of baseballs detached and hovered over the unconscious soldiers.

Before he could say anything.

The air rippled over the them.

Flesh liquefied with frightening quickness.

“Wha—” he started to stammer.

“Yes. It appears that I have broken one of your father’s most important rules. It was necessary. Please look inside.”

He did so, entering the Danger Complex quickly. Conscious of the raging battle.

The large entrance lobby was a warzone or rather the remnants of one.

“We defeated the enemy soldiers at the onset of their attempted breach. As per rules we took prisoners when possible. Surrenders were accepted. As you can see, the countermeasures to the sleeper devices implanted in them… failed. I failed to halt the trigger signal. Failed to detect it,” Frequency said.

He watched Threnosh and Earthians triaging the wounded and gathering the dead.

Training drones or their torn limbs covered the floor like dead leaves on the forest floor in autumn’s dying days.

“They absorbed the initial surge. Casualties would’ve been 40% greater according to assessment without their presence.”

“Okay, what’s the situation? Where can I help most?”

“Unknown. The enemy is disrupting communications. Our attempts to send drones to the other structures have failed.”

“The satellites saw nothing wrong. I couldn’t even see anything until I got to just under a kilometer away.”

“That was our assessment.”

“Right, we need to get word to my aunt and Uncle Remy.”

“Presumably, one will need to breach this 1 kilometer boundary. We do not have any flight capable individuals here. Foot or vehicle egress will not have a high probability of success with the monsters surrounding us. The harpies are another concern. What little we have been able to observe suggests that our own air assets will be unable to provide escort. Let alone break off from their battle to carry the message themselves.”

Alin thought fast. Remembered the scheduled training classes. Tapped into the system to bring up the rosters. Found the person he thought, but wasn’t certain, was there.

He followed the tracker in his HUD to a triage area just inside the main training chamber.

Candyslyn moved awkwardly through the press of people moving around in the controlled chaos of trying to save lives. Her strength allowed her to carry heavy loads of supplies and life-saving machinery from storage, while the height afforded by her pronghorn-like legs allowed her to disperse the items like a teacher handing out candies to her students.

She swung her horned head to him at the beeping message in her glasses.

“Boy! You’re here! Does that mean—”

“Sorry, just me. For right now, but I’m hoping you can help change that.”

She was young, barely 20, if that.

Big, round eyes for enhanced vision made her look even younger.

Despite the horns jutting out of her hairline and the legs with backwards knees, as the morons said, she didn’t make for an intimidating figure once one took a closer look.

It made sense that she wasn’t a fighter.

Not that she didn’t know her way around a battle.

Running messages along the massive wall surrounding their territory was close enough to count.

She had on occasion found it necessary to shoot monsters, throw grenades or cut them in passing with blades.

Her face fell as Alin asked for her help.

Fear and despair deepened as he explained the risks.

Then turned into resolve as he finished.

“If we lose here, then home is next,” she nodded. “I’ll do it.”

“There’s a secret tunnel, but I can’t—” he pinged the Danger Complex’s system to get a list of who was present. “Lash?”

“Boy? Where are you? Wait! You’re here!”

“Busy?”

“I’m in the control room. We’re trying to figure out how to contact… well… anyone out there. If you’re here then—”

“Sorry, Lash, but I don’t have time to explain. I need you to show Candys the secret tunnel. She’s going to run us a message to the rangers and my aunt.

“Yeah, no problem. I’ll send someone right away. Have her meet them there.”

“Got it.” He pushed directions directly into Candys’ glasses. “Easy to follow. One of the Threnosh will take you through it.”

“Okay, okay, okay.” Candys took a deep breath. “I can do this.” Her hands shook.

“There’s so much going on out there that they won’t even notice you. The freeway was clear when I flew over.”

“It’s only 43 kilometers. I can do that in less than 15 minutes. I mean I did it once… monsters chased me the whole way…” she shuddered.

Alin pinged a nearby Threnosh infantry soldier standing guard with a request for a light self-defense pack to be brought to the tunnel entrance for her. Just enough modules and items to give her extra protection and evasiveness. He didn’t think she really needed it, but knew that the comfort would help her confidence. It was the same for him with his power armor and all its toys.

“They’re blocking visuals out to at least a kilometer. Get past that and I’m thinking the satellites will pick you up. Plus, the Rayna One’s not far.”

She nodded.

“I’ll try to reach them right away.”

He bid her luck and hoped he hadn’t just screwed her over and sent her to her death or worse.

Rushing back to the front he reached out to Lash one more time.

“Hey, Lash… I saw Colin fighting the harpies when I flew in.”

“… that’s good,” she sighed. “Thanks, Boy. Good luck out there.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Frequency met him at the doors with their squad.

“I can’t provide you with more support than half.”

He debated turning it down.

His power armor was at full capacity, his power was in the single digits if he had to give it a number.

Granted that would only rise if he could continue to drain the old American soldiers.

“That works for me.”

The added firepower would only help him get to that point quicker and, more importantly, alive.

“Alright, guys. I need some time to scope out the situation. Tech’s not working too well, so that means we have to use our eyes until I can spread my power further.”

“Acknowledged,” Fireteam Leader Canwyll Gorge 3569 said flatly.

A heavy infantry soldier activated their heavy duty energy shield.

Translucent blue light projected from the emitter in the recesses of the bulky armor covered their arm.

The doors opened.

Bullets immediately sparked off the shield.

The heavy strode forward. Shoulder-mounted cannon spat large flechettes. The silent retort to the loud insults from the old American soldiers.

The rest of the Threnosh squad tossed portable shield generators ahead, rushing into their aegis and firing through the narrow openings in the shields.

The enemy had taken cover in the remains of a fallen Hover APC.

Alin saw no signs of the crew. He couldn’t even use the Omninet to connect to their helmets to find out if they were even alive.

Thoughts of his mom, friends and everyone else he knew crept unbidden, but he forced them away as if swatting at a swarm of thirsty flies.

“Frag out!”

A voice that chewed rocks heralded the thump of a grenade launcher.

Fireteam Leader Canwyll Gorge 3569 didn’t say a word.

They merely raised their head to the sky.

Cybernetic systems turned commands into action at nearly the speed of thought.

One of the soldiers met the grenade at the apex of its arc with a stream of projectiles from their recoilless rifle.

“Chain Lightning!”

A mage stuck her hand out of cover.

Projectiles ripped her fingers off, but not before she cast her spell.

Her screams were drowned out by the crackle of ozone and the explosion of the shield generators.

The heavy’s shield flickered until Skill-enhanced shots and enchanted bullets finally put it to rest.

The Threnosh retreated behind the much larger heavy as the old American soldiers, seizing the advantage turned up the fire.

Alin ignored the few shots that managed to get through the covering squad to focus on sending the gray across the asphalt like a creeping tide.

He lapped at their boots, climbed their ankles and wrapped around their legs.

The gray engulfed.

He took.

Stolen lifeforce surged into him stronger than any of the alchemical combat drugs running through the old American soldiers’ bodies.

Their fire dwindled to nothing.

“They’re all sleepers.”

As he said the words he understood that he had just consigned them to death.

“Acknowledged.”

Fireteam Leader Canwyll Gorge 3569 directed their half squad forward.

Hardlight blades emerged from gauntlets.

Swift cuts separated heads from shoulders before the sleeper devices could be triggered.

“Vehicle is empty, Fireteam Leader.”

Alin hoped that they had managed to escape, maybe they were inside the Danger Complex.

The fighting was mostly nonexistent near the Danger Complex, but thickened further out.

Chaos filled his home.

“Destination?” the fireteam leader said.

There was only one place he wanted to be.

“Command center.”