Spires

Large size made for a large target.

Tougher to get the tip of a whip into a baby’s mouth than into that of a huge demigod.

Manticore venom was nasty stuff.

Like snake venom turned up to 200.

Ironically, the monsters didn’t use their stinger on its prey like snakes used theirs.

It was strictly a weapon for killing threats too dangerous to mess around with.

The venom turned meat into a slurry and manticores liked their food in substantial chunks.

Suiteonemiades bit down and jerked his head to one side.

Ibra released his hold and replaced whip with crossbow.

Green-tipped spines filled the air, bouncing off golden forcefield.

The demigod spat.

The tip of a manticore stinger landed on Alin's faceplate.

A few drops splashed across, smoking faintly.

The demigod licked his lips. “Some demigods season their food with manticore venom. I don’t, but only because of the terrible flavor. Too much like iron. Why one would ruin a cook’s or chef’s work has always been beyond me? To dishonor their efforts just to be able to pound your chest like a primate in breeding season… pointless.”

Ibra sprinted wide, crossbow of bone and sinew firing as fast as he could squeeze the trigger.

“Brave warrior of the manticore, I honor you with a quick and clean death befitting your bravery here today.”

The demigod fired an almost lazy blast from his fingertip.

Ibra dived and rolled away from the blast as it shattered the asphalt.

The ghazi of the manticore’s venom pulled a small round shield layered with the scales of an ibingan to block the next blast of divine energy.

“Dimensional storage. Advanced for your level. It is as the histories say,” Suiteonemiades mused.

Any further thoughts weren’t allowed to be shared by Primal, who didn’t appreciate verbose fights.

The Threnosh’s barrel-like arm cannon fired a second orb of crackling blue-white energy.

Twice was not the charm as the demigod blocked it with a bright shield filled with scrolling symbols well away from his body.

A science-based copy of a spell, the orb was designed to vaporize biological matter on impact.

Unfortunately, the module in Primal’s true skin had only enough power for a limited number of shots unless they re-routed from other systems, which was pointless if the weapon was ineffective.

The Threnosh thundered forward, projectiles filled the space between them and the demigod with the twinkling of tens of thousands of tiny stars.

Alin struggled harder to dislodge the tree-like leg pushing him into the ground. He was already down into the softer soil beneath the hard asphalt.

If he couldn’t get away then Primal couldn’t use their more explosive and dangerous weapons.

The Threnosh’s true skin was a lot lighter than it looked when viewed through the lens of an Earthian perspective. Threnosh materials science was centuries, if not a millennia or two ahead. Stronger, yet lighter. Resistant to multiple types of stresses in a way that defied Earth science knowledge.

Thus, despite being roughly the size of an elephant’s front half, Primal’s true skin weighed less than a ton.

Artificial muscles powered by tiny power sources that could light up a small pre-spires city propelled stumpy legs into a thunderous collision.

The Threnosh brought a double barrel-armed gorilla smash down on the forcefield. New saw rings whirred to life, sparking against the gold.

On the opposite side Ibra continued to fire venom-tipped spines without having to reload.

The golden forcefield thickened underneath Primal’s assault at the expense of thinning elsewhere.

Spines ripped through.

Suiteonemiades caught them in the palm of his hand without looking, crushing them like an afterthought.

“Your machine is powerful, but power in anything but yourself is not true power.” The demigod kicked Alin away like a ball. “I grant you the honor of facing the son of a God unleashed!”

Divine energy erupted, sending Primal stumbling back.

He thrust forth with a thin beam of golden light.

Primal’s shields met it.

A spine grazed the side of his cheek, sparking gold with its passing.

He fired with his other hand without looking back.

Energy shields layered.

Ibingan scale shield glowed.

The latter failed first.

Alin choked out a sob as Ibra vanished in a blinding flash of golden light, leaving nothing but a dark smudge on the asphalt.

Primal’s shields fizzled. Smoke vented from their armor from the burned out generators.

The Threnosh poured fire.

Shoulder-mounted weapons spat shells and flechettes.

As if toying with them, the demigod casually walked forward through the heart of the firestorm, almost lazily holding his hand up as his beam began to melt away at the thick Threnium armor plating on Primal’s barrel-sized arm.

Flamethrowers and lasers.

Vaporizing orb.

Nothing breached the demigod’s skin-tight forcefield.

This had never been a fair battle, which was how battles were meant to be fought.

It was just that being on the other side of it brought crushing despair.

The Threnosh knew no such thing.

Primal had long outlived projections even for the standard Threnosh. They had shattered the expected lifespan of those once called ‘defectives’.

Despair?

No.

There was only battle and that could only end one of two ways.

They fired a dense cloud of deadly projectiles from the launchers in their torso.

The demigod merely covered his face with his free arm.

They deployed a sonic weapon replicated from Frequency’s true skin.

To their surprise the demigod faltered.

Divine energy saturating his cells or not, he still had ears that clearly shared an identical structure to the standard Earthian.

The golden beam punched through Primal’s armor a moment before it suddenly shut off.

The demigod wobbled.

Primal thundered forward, clubbing him to the ground.

They stomped a crater with the demigod in the center.

Until their sonic weapon ran out of power.

Primal rerouted from other systems at the speed of cybernetic thought.

They were no fool.

Not a callow rookie, but a hardened veteran of many years and many battles.

It had been the only weapon system that worked so far and a warrior fought with what worked.

It was a momentary disruption, barely a second.

An eternity for some beings.

The demigod surged to his feet, pressing Primal’s stumpy leg up.

The Threnosh stumbled, nearly toppled before catching themself.

Suiteonemiades ripped the cannon off one shoulder and crumpled the barrel on the other. He hammered the former into the side of Primal’s knee and found the armor and construction stronger.

Discarding the bent weapon, the demigod blurred.

All Alin caught were the bright flashes of gold that came with the machine gun-like punches.

Threnium dented.

The deformation created openings for black fingers to pry the plates off to expose thinner armor, artificial muscles and more sensitive inner workings.

“Boy, retreat and secure your safety. I am executing last stand protocols,” Primal said into the comms. “This is Primal to all. Last stand protocols are in effect. Find shelter. I repeat. Last stand protocols are in effect. Find shelter.”

Alin didn’t know if anyone else heard it, judging by the static on the comms, it wasn’t likely.

“No…” even as he said it, muscle memory took over.

Ibra was gone, so he looked to the magus.

Only a small pool of blood remained where she had lain unconscious.

The demigod punched a golden beam straight through Primal’s armored torso.

The gaping hole revealed… nothing, but a tangle of artificial muscles and wires.

Primal was small even for a Threnosh.

They barely came halfway up a human thigh now that age had shrunken them to frail bones failing to support atrophied muscles wrapped in speckled gray skin that wept blood from tears that came at the slightest movement.

They had barely exited their true skin in years. Only left their cocoon for rejuvenation treatments with science and magic that grew less effective with each session.

Barrel-like arms so massive that they made the demigod look like an average Earthian suddenly wrapped him up in a crushing embrace.

Suiteonemiades laughed. “The others would dismiss you as weak for your stature and frailty, but know that you are a true warrior! You might’ve even caught a lesser demigod off-guard.”

Primal ejected.

Their cocoon flew on anti-gravity and microthrusters.

Close-range lasers traced across the demigod’s long, bulbous helmet and down his back.

Too weak or the demigod was too strong.

Golden eyes flashed.

“Goodbye, Boy. Remember our discussions. Know that I have found it.”

Twin beams zigzagged over the demigod’s head.

Red lasers met them.

There was no contest.

The suddenness of if brought on denial.

An instinctive reaction against reality because to accept it brought on finality in turn.

Like with Ibra, the touch of the divine energy left nothing of Primal but dark ashes falling to the ground.

Alin scrambled to his feet.

“And so you are the last—”

Alin turned and crashed through the front of his home. Stolen strength and microthrusters gave him speed.

“Perhaps, I overestimated his bravery?” Suiteonemiades pried himself free of the empty true skin’s embrace.

“Computer! Blast shields and maximum forcefield to the front of the building!”

“Acknowledged.”

Matte gray walls rose out of the floor on the inside. Followed by a blue glow lining the walls and ceiling.

“Is anyone still on the roof?”

“Negative.”

“Can anyone hear me?”

The comms crackled.

Seconds ticked away.

How much time until-

“Computer. Active nuclear protocols for entire compound.”

He couldn’t risk waiting.

If people were still outside then the protocols would give them time to get inside a building or the bunkers underneath the walls. Of course that was only if they could. If they were tangling with monsters then the warning wouldn’t do much good, would it?

He had just consigned those people to their deaths.

There was not an ounce of doubt in his mind.

“Computer. Show me front parking lot.”

The image appeared in his HUD, marred by the cracks, but perfectly watchable.

Suiteonemiades had freed himself from Primal’s true skin.

“Ah…” the demigod nodded with an approving smile. “A true warrior!”

The explosion was akin to a nuke. Minus lasting negative environmental impact. No radiation. Just immense heat and force.

Intense light obscured the image, but only for a moment.

When it cleared, the demigod held hands toward an enormous ball of blinding light.

It grew like a balloon attached to an air compressor.

“Computer. Status of weapons with firing arcs on front parking lot?”

“Unavailable.”

“Status of missiles anywhere in the compound.”

“Unavailable.”

He tried connecting to one of their weapon-bearing satellites without success.

The demigod’s sculpted torso glistened as every muscle clenched taut.

He was actually managing to contain a release of energy enough to glass the entire compound and pulverize structures out to a few kilometers with the pressure wave.

Alin only knew one other person who could do something similar.

And just like his dad, Suiteonemiades threw the contained explosion the only place possible.

Straight into the sky.

The demigod stood frozen like a sculpture with hands stretched to the sky.

Alin couldn’t track the rapidly growing balloon of energy.

He only knew that it had exploded from the bright flash of light and the violent shaking of the entire building.

Just as soon as the shaking had stopped another even more powerful one rocked it.

Thunder struck the Threnium blast shields.

Gray matte bulged inward and began to glow.

Red, orange, yellow, white in seconds.

“Computer. Engage lobby weapons!”

“Acknowledged.”

They emerged from their hiding places in the floor and walls.

He sent the image of the demigod for them to target.

Mechanisms whirred to life as laser designators swept across the tiled floor to focus on the impending breach.

He rushed behind the front desk and the hidden laser cannon.

It was bulky and connected to the building’s power supply with a thick, reinforced cable.

Without his power armor or the stolen strength currently coursing through his body, he’d have wasted precious seconds getting into the exoskeleton harness required to lift the cannon.

He checked the external cameras one last time to make sure that there was nobody he didn’t want to laser behind the demigod.

Suiteonemiades punched through. Glowing hands melted and ripped a gaping hole in the Threnium and overloaded the lobby’s shield generators in one.

Recoilless guns spat flechettes.

If Alin had any hope that the demigod had just been weakened by Primal’s sacrifice, they were dashed instantly.

Thin golden beams zigzagged across the lobby, destroying each gun with a touch.

“You fight like a frightened child, which I suppose is what you are.”

Alin activated the laser cannon.

Bright red lanced across the lobby, setting nearby tables and chairs on fire.

The energy blast shield at the base of the cannon grew bright from the residual heat.

If he wasn’t wearing his power armor, he’d have pulsed the shots to give the shield time to dissipate the heat.

That didn’t matter, so he kept pouring it on.

Suiteonemiades frowned under the assault.

Skin-tight golden forcefield cracked.

Drones launched from their hiding places.

Flechette shooters and multiple spitters.

Flame, ice, acid and many more elements.

A blend of magic and technology.

Divine energy pulsed.

Every drone exploded.

Alin flinched from the exploding laser cannon.

It threw him through the wall into the old offices behind the front lobby.

The demigod seemed to fill the massive hole with his presence.

Deep black skin, unmarred by everything they had thrown at him.

Implacable, unstoppable.

Death.

Primal.

Ibra.

The Rayn of Fire.

More.

And more yet to come.

All Alin had left to fight had proved useless.

The gray.

It was always going to come down to that.

He pushed it out once again.

Stolen strength remained, not that it had or would make a difference.

If he could delay for as long as possible.

Keep the demigod occupied.

Hope his mom didn’t know where he was, what he was doing so she’d follow protocols and head for safety.

Hope Candys had made it out okay to get word to his aunt and the rangers.

Hope his dad was doing better against a pair of demigods than they were against one.

A shadow rippled next to him.

His heart almost leapt out of his chest at the snarling feline visage that emerged a hand’s distance from his face.

Only a hood.

Tabitha’s head was followed by her arms and shoulders.

“Boy, c’mon. We have to go. Wizards are casting a trap. Can’t be on the first floor.”

“My mom?”

“Fine. In the command center.”

“Command center? I believe that is below ground,” Suiteonemiades said as if he had been standing right next to them and not all the way out in the middle of the lobby.

“Hurry.” Tabitha tugged on Alin’s arm.

He didn’t enjoy travel through the shadow realm, but he dived in without hesitation.

Tabitha dumped him in the command center a few stories under ground level.

“Mom! He’s after you! We have to get you out of here.”

His mother was clad in her Threnosh-made armor.

Matte gray, dark and unadorned.

She stood next to the central console with a projection of the battlefield in 3D floating in the middle.

Others stood with her.

A handful of Threnosh, more Earthians.

Command staff, though his dad didn’t run anything close to a traditional military structure with its rigid hierarchies.

“We figured that from what he was saying up there,” she said calmly. “Boy, I want you to head to the emergency bunkers. Take charge of the evacuation.”

She knew?

But he thought their comms had been jammed, whether intentionally or as a byproduct of the massive amounts of divine energy coming from the demigod.

Regardless, it wasn’t the time for questions and explanations.

“No. I’m not leaving you.”

“You’re all so insubordinate,” his mom sighed.

Howard was there, leaning against a wall.

Blackstar gulped a stamina potion.

Two-thirds of the Heartfuries glared at the remaining third.

Drake also glared, but only when Jayde wasn’t looking his way.

Bei sat in the lotus position, eyes closed.

If viewed through the gray he could feel energy from the surrounding environment flowing into her.

Qi.

She had gotten offended once when he had remarked that Qi and mana felt almost exactly the same.

Cammi also sat cross-legged, but worse, whether from a lack of flexibility or her enchanted robes got in the way. Oh, she was also levitating off the floor. Her glasses were tucked into a pocket while her spellbook was fixed to a page, glowing like a high-intensity flashlight. Her staff stood next to her as if watching her back like a loyal and vicious guard dog.

Marloes twirled her wand of laser pointer across her knuckles while glaring a hole into the ceiling.

Kynnro and Frequency conferred with the commander of the standard Threnosh expeditionary force.

Did they know— they must if they had watched.

Adrian, Black Cat, stood partially hidden by a shadow that shouldn’t have been there next to Tabitha.

Another hybrid, Kelci, Hungry-Hungry, stood near his mom like a loyal and vicious guard hippopotamus.

Howard shrugged. “Don’t know about that, Boss 1A. I mean, can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m pretty sure I’m following someone’s orders, eh. Just a matter of which orders go ahead of which other orders.”

“If he’s after me, he’ll leave the rest of you alone.”

“Or he’ll go get us after, ma’am.” Kelci’s voice was a deep rumble. Fitting for her size and strength. If not for her age and behavior outside of combat.

“It’s a moot point once the spell works.” His mom’s gaze fell on Cammi. “Updates on their end.”

“I will check,” Frequency said.

Alin understood instantly.

The Threnosh was an undisputed master of all things related to sound waves.

If the comms were being jammed then he knew that they must’ve spread their drones through the bunker system to create a temporary, but stronger network.

“Teddy Bear, status report on spell,” Frequency said.

Silence.

The ceiling rumbled, showering them with dust.

Frequency remained nonplussed.

They nodded after another long moment.

“Acknowledged. Proceed the instant you are ready. Do not wait for confirmation.”

The command center shook.

Alin gazed at the tactical projection.

The moving pieces flickered in and out due to the jamming.

What he could make out was a lot of red dots, masses really, centered on the wall breaches.

“Boy, I really need you to go. I’m counting on you to make sure the evacuation tunnels haven’t been compromised before I give the order,” his mom said.

“Mom, I can’t leave you.”

God damn it!

He sounded like a whining child, not a superpowered man entering the prime of his life.

“I sent Luther and Bolder ahead to create a new tunnel if necessary. They’re waiting on you. The sooner we know the better for everyone.”

“What about the cameras? The scanners?”

“They can’t be trusted. We saw nothing on them when the Americans attacked. Nothing on the spell detectors despite the fact that they portaled in. The wizards and mages assured me that they felt something, even if it was a lot weaker than it should have been accounting for distance and number.”

“They portaled into the compound?”

“Right inside the walls, through all the wards and shields and detectors.”

That tracked from the brief look he got of the breaches.

The wall debris had been scattered on the outside. The torn metal as well pointed outward. As if a cannon had shot them from the inside or a demigod.

“A few assassins and special forces types even portaled inside the buildings.”

“That’s—” well… nothing was impossible in the spires worlds with enough power.

“One caught me in the shower. Would’ve been a nasty end if not for Tabitha.”

Irrational anger flooded him.

Momma’s boy anger he had been teased about in the past.

He had plenty to be angry about.

Kynnro poked their way into the conversation.

“I believe I noticed that you didn’t use your full power, Boy.”

“Things happened with the ambassador.”

His mom’s eyes narrowed.

“I’ll explain later, but short story… I haven’t recovered enough to… uh… ask for their help.”

“Perhaps, they can hold the demigod. Their unique nature may be able to affect him when everything else has failed.”

“I couldn’t drain him. And there’s no one left to drain. I did the monsters, but they weren’t enough to re-fill me and all the Americans ran away, so I can’t drain them.”

“There are others.”

“He’s not draining our people, Kynnro,” his mom said flatly.

“Escape probability is not favorable without casualties. If Boy can—”

“No. There will be no draining of our people.”

“Yeah, Kynnro. I don’t even think I could on a subconscious level or if I could, I’d worry about what might come after, you know?”

“Acknowledged.”

The chamber shook.

“Recommend retreat, Designation: Nila Cruces,” Commander West Stream 1009 said.

The squad of standard Threnosh soldiers had already been standing at attention near the open door leading to the bunker system.

“Yes, I agree. Everyone go,” his mom pointed.

No one moved, most found somewhere else to look.

“At least the pregnant woman,” his mom sighed.

“Yeah, get your pregnant ass in gear!” Hayden snapped.

Jayde rolled her eyes. “You saw the power that butthole’s throwing around. It’s just as dangerous there as it is here. And you need my arcane fists.” She cocked and brandished said fists.

How one cocked a pair of fists?

Alin didn’t know.

But somehow, Jayde did it.

Drake took a deep breath.

“Honey, please—”

“Don’t you dare use our children against me!” She raised an arcane finger to his face.

“It’s a tactical and strategic consideration. Bolder used up a lot of mana out there. You’re pretty fresh. The rest of our mages are limited when it comes to moving or removing the amount of earth we might need to for emergency tunneling. You’re our second best option.”

“We have yet to re-establish contact with Doomborer.” Kynnro helped.

“Fine—”

Cammi suddenly uttered gibberish.

The wizard’s head jerked back, magic light shined from the lenses of her glasses like a spotlight on the ceiling.

Jayde grimaced. “Oh, that looked painful.”

Still levitating in her cross-legged position, Cammi rotated allowing her gaze to focus on a specific spot on the ceiling.

The volume and rate of her unintelligible words increased just like the glow from her floating spellbook

Wind seemed to swirl in the large command chamber until it suddenly stopped like it had never been in there at all.

Cammi hit the floor with a thud.

“Ouch! Someone should’ve caught her,” Jayde raised a brow over at Adrian. “Where’s the cat-like reflexes, Black Cat?”

“I’m sorry. I was stunned. I don’t have an excuse.”

“You’re no fun anymore.” Jayde pouted.

“Did the time slow spell work?” his mom said.

Frequency inquired and received the reply a moment later.

“All wizards are in the same condition,” they said.

“The sounds of punching stopped, eh?” Howard shrugged.

“Let’s go,” his mom nodded. “Commander, escort my son. Boy, get started. We can’t afford to get slowed down by any surprises. Americans or monsters, it doesn’t matter. I need you to spot them and drain them. Don’t hold back. I’ll take responsibility for whatever might happen.”

Alin glanced at Cammi’s still, but breathing form.

Kynnro was already attaching anti-gravity discs to the wizard. “We were warned not to touch a wizard’s staff without authorization.”

“It’s not attacking you or anything, Kynnie, so I think you’re alright,” Jayde said. “It’ll either disappear to whence she stores it when not in use or it’ll follow. Some of the higher level ones can make their wands and staffs defended themselves automatically.”

“Staves,” Dayana said.

“Yeah, if you’re old,” Jayde replied.

“‘Staffs’ just sounds weird.”

“If. You’re. Old.”

“Alright, let’s go!” Howard barked. “I’m rearguard. I’ll seal the blast doors and set the automated defenses manually just in case things get squirrelly again.”

Alin regarded his mom.

“Go,” she shooed him, “I’ll be right behind you.”

He couldn’t think of something to say that wouldn’t sound like a whiny Lera, so he did as his young tyrant cousin struggled to do and kept his mouth shut as he walked through the doorway flanked by the Threnosh squad.

One Heavy took point. Followed by a pair of standard infantry.

Alin was next in the formation flanked by a pair of standard infantry on both sides.

The commander was just behind with the remainder.

The tunnel was wide and spacious with a tall ceiling to accommodate larger individuals and small to medium-sized vehicles.

Sometimes more space was less desirable tactically.

This was not one of those times.

More or less.

It didn’t matter.

The demigod had more than enough power to render the size of their environment meaningless.

He thought of Primal, but buried it immediately.

Distractions led to mistakes, which cost lives.

The gray flowed in front of him like a fast moving wave, while staying behind.

One proverbial eye looked forward for potential threats, while another eye looked backed to make sure that everyone, especially his mom, was still there.

“Scan is clear,” Commander West Stream 1009 said. “Approaching emergency habitation chamber 1. Slow for scan.”

“Negative. It’s clear,” he said.

One always traded caution for speed.

The gray swept through, filling the larger chamber and moving on down the tunnel.

“Chamber 2 is also clear. 3 is—”

The tunnel shook violently.

Everyone who had lived in the area back in the pre-spires days had always joked about waiting for the ‘big one’. His dad and mom had told him about it. Earthquakes. The last huge one, the kind that collapsed freeways, had occurred in the mid 90’s… as in 1990’s. The date had sounded weird to him. Like ancient times.

All things considered he’d take an earthquake over the demigod.

Chatter came in over the comms.

Closer range meant less static, but still not crystal clear as usual.

Frequency’s warning came at the same time that the ceiling crashed on their heads.

Alin and the Threnosh squad scattered.

Not all of them reacted quickly enough to avoid the collapsing rubble.

A mix of concrete, metal and dirt poured into the chamber like a waterfall.

Sunlight cast a pillar of light through a gaping hole that went tens of meters straight to the surface.

Upon the pile of rubble stood Suiteonemiades.

“A time slowing spell. Not even a true time stop? Not that it would’ve made a difference. I powered through one of the latter for the first time almost 200 years ago. Still… a worthy effort for those of lesser abilities. I judge it a well conceived and executed tactic… for children.”

“Engage,” Commander West Stream 1009 said. “We will occupy the enemy. Continue retreat.”

“I’m here for a single person,” the demigod said. “Nila Cruces. Surrender and this battle ends.”

Suiteonemiades ignored the storm of flechettes raking his golden shield.

Alin was really getting sick of the color.

They were split.

He was with the Threnosh squad in the east half of the chamber.

Everyone else was in the west half.

The only way forward for them was through the demigod.

His HUD beeped.

The commander’s silent order to switch target and a signal for the rest of them to move.

The squad turned their fire to the small mound of rubble the demigod stood on.

Flechettes shredded through it, causing him to drop in a thick, billowing cloud of debris.

Alin smothered the area in the gray with all the anger he could muster, which was considerable because the outworld invader was after his mom.

It hadn’t worked yet, but he wasn’t going to stop trying.

He engaged his multi-weapon as he charged.

“Desig— halt. You are to retreat.”

He ignored the commander’s monotone.

The demigod bastard wanted to hurt his mom.

Twin golden beams burned through the debris cloud and the gray.

They curved around him just before they hit his chest.

“Shields to maximum,” Commander West Stream 1009 said flatly.

Alin placed a stop cut to his front, high to low, at the soundless scream of instinct’s voice.

He cut the demigod’s grinning face at the same time that the twin golden beams cut through the Threnosh squad.

Hardlight blade shattered.

An explosion against his chest stole his breath and shoved him into that long, dark hallway.

“Boy!” his mom screamed.