The Lesser One Arc Two Chapter 22: Eruption

 

Eruption

It’s times such as these that I wish Esla was here. Her powers would be perfect against the threats we’re facing.

 I stand with the Blue Dryads, as we are loading onto a Warrior armored personnel carrier. Chris loads with me, as well as two elves from Wagner’s Right of Way.

I palm the object I picked up from the underground auction. It is glowing gently beneath my coat. As the door to the vehicle closes, I take a deep breath. It is likely that people will die today. They probably already have. But in the end, this event resulted from my own failure as much as anyone else’s.

I do wonder what Elina is doing. With her ability to read emotions, she really should know what she is doing. My thoughts churn as we return to the battlefield.

The roof of the Warrior impacts, caving in the steel.

“Go, go, go!” The leader of our squad yells as the back door lowers. We run out of the carrier and into the street.

I recognize Nameless on top of the carrier. He swipes with his hand, and it extends like a whip, slicing a member of the Blue Dryads in two. Blood spurts everywhere.

The two elves take positions beside me. Chris is behind me, watching my back.

“Shoot! Fire!” The squad leader is holding an automatic weapon. The bullets, however, simply bounce off Nameless’s hide.

I fire an arrow at him. He catches it in his hand. His eyes lock on to me. While there wasn’t much there before, now there is nothing. It is as if his soul is gone.

“Mark!” A squad of SWAT team members unload from a black personnel carrier. They spread out and open fire on Nameless.

Nameless tanks the shots and leaps into the midst of the SWAT team, tearing through them with a whirlwind of ferocity. Blood and body parts fly everywhere.

I shoot at him several more times, and each time he deflects the shots with his tail. He is in full lizard form now, appearing like a humanoid lizard man. His eyes lock onto me and I feel an intense dread build up inside me.

Chris steps out in front of me. “I won’t let you through.”

Nameless licks his claws. He says nothing, only staring at me. Then he strikes.

Chris parries the first claw strike. I roll away, dropping my bow in the process. Nameless leaps over Chris with his powerful legs and lands right in front of me.

Before Nameless can stab me, Chris grabs him by the neck and begins to strangle him. They pull away, struggling.

The two elves in the party run up to Nameless. One of them casts frost magic. Ice crystals grow up Nameless’s legs, freezing them in place. Nameless’s face I turning purple and his tongue is hanging out.

With a huge burst of strength, Nameless throws off all three elves. He looks around with fury in his eyes, and then locks on to me. His gaze meets mine

I conjure a short sword. “Come at me.”

Nameless sprints towards me, hands drawn behind his back. His mouth is open to reveal a slathering tongue.

I step aside and swing with my sword. I really need to take some swordsmanship lessons. I hit him, but the sword clangs off his hide. He careens past me.

I use my power to make my blade sharp at the molecular level. Nameless and I face off again. Nameless’s tongue flickers. His eyes land on my blade. It seems he can tell that it is a lot more dangerous this time. He takes a step toward me.

I swing my blade a few times.

Nameless backs away.

A tank careens around the corner and rams Nameless, knocking him over and grinding him against the concrete. Sparks fly. Nameless’s face eats asphalt. The tank slows down and the commander pops out of the hatch.

“What did we hit?” He looks at me. “It must have been huge.”

I look underneath the tank and see Nameless, pinned beneath the treads. He is not dead yet.

Another APC arrives and more SWAT team members disembark. They surround Nameless, tying him down with large amounts of steel and other restraining devices. He is locked and won’t be going anywhere.

The noise from the attack appears to be dying down. I don’t know if it’s over quite yet, but we’re getting there. The whole episode feels hyper-real. As if it’s more real than reality. My whole body is on high alert.

I collapse onto a bench. I am breathing heavily. Chris stands beside me. “We did it, Markus.”

“Yeah. We can let the rest of the people handle the other Darks.” I look at Chris. “You’re going to have to explain everything to the government.”

Chris frowns. “Some of this information is dangerous.”

“They need to know. Where these portals are coming from. Why magic suddenly appeared forty years ago. Everything.” I take the object I retrieved from the auction out of my pocket. “This. Do you know what this is?”

“It is a sacred artifact, though I do not recognize its make.”

It appears to be a small pocket computer from the eighties. Just a single line LCD screen and a number of buttons. I try pressing the ON button. A greeting scrolls across the screen.

Welcome, user. Please insert your Fallen Angels ID card.

I do not have this Fallen Angels ID card. The device refuses to do anything else, so I power it down. Barley’s helicopter flies overhead, lowering into the street and touching down right in front of us.

Barley steps out. “You need to come with us.”

Chris and I get back on the helicopter. I am given another helmet with a headset.

Barley gives some directions to the pilot, and then turns to me. “You’re required at HQ for a debriefing.”

“The same one as before?”

“No.” Barley leans into the helicopter’s turn. “This is the headquarters for all adventuring and hero work in the city of London. The HQ I’m in charge of is only for the organized crime unit.”

“What do they need to know?”

Barley points at Chris. “She knows something that we don’t. And we want to know.”

I look at Chris, who is not wearing a helmet. I give her a thumbs-up.

Barley talks to the pilot again and then turns to me. “We consider this mission to be a success, as we have achieved our original goal: the capture of the Darks. Anything else is just collateral damage.”

I watch the city pull away. “Harsh.”

“It’s the truth. We’ve faced it ever since the portals became a threat.”

“I understand, but …” I look off into the distance. We are approaching a compound on the outskirts of the city. Lots of other helicopters are buzzing about, and dozens of military vehicles are rolling in and out. We land in the middle of a large helipad. Barley jumps off and waves for me to do the same.

Chris and I get off the helicopter and follow Barley into a concrete building with a low roof. There are lots of people going back and forth through the hallways. I see a lot of adventuers’ guild badges.

We arrive in a conference room where a dozen high-ranking generals and commanders are gathered around a map of London. There are markers on the map telling where each of the Darks is located. I see Elina standing in a corner, a smug look on her face. Mandrake is with the generals looking over the map. What kind of internal politics were they talking about?

It doesn’t matter at the moment, however. Barley pushes through the commanders with a surprising amount of authority and brings us to a small room on the side of the command room, overlooking it. Two scientists are there, seated behind a desk. A computer monitor shows several more scientists who are tuning in remotely. I am shocked to see that Dr. Barrimore is there. He sees me and winks. I am too stunned to say anything back.

Barley sits down next to the two scientists. He motions towards Chris, and when she approaches, he hands her a paper with diagrams. “I know your world is a bit different from ours, but please see if you can make sense of this.”

Chris accepts the papers and looks them over. “I recognize this. This is a black ice regurgitator. My people use it to travel the phlogiston.”

“Black ice …” Everyone in the room is stunned. “So you know what this is.” Barley’s voice holds reverence. “Tell us what happened.”

“Do you know about the Fourth Law?” Chris folds her arms.

Dr. Barrimore is the first to respond. “I believe she is talking about reduplicative personality elimination due to excised portal effects.”

The other scientists nod their heads as if they had just understood that. I hadn’t.

Dr. Barrimore continues. “This proves my theory on the subject. There will be a paper coming about this soon. In the meantime, we have to figure out exactly why this outcome happened.”

Chris shakes her head. “No. You forgot to pray to the gods of darkness and fire.”

“What …” All the scientists look confused.

I step in. “Chis’s translation magic sometimes doesn’t work very well when describing concepts like this. Maybe if she could show you.”

Dr. Barrimore raises an eyebrow. “Are you an engineer in your home plane?”

Chris tilts her head. “What you call engineer I call arch mage. Yes, I am an arch mage.”

“What is your spirit?”

“Royal Ice.” Chris’s expression changes slightly.

“Royal ice …” Dr. Barrimore appear pensive. “I’ll have to make a note of that.”

Chris points to the diagram. “You’re missing a ley line link here.” She looks at the white board in the room. “How do I use this?”

I hand her a marker.

She turns it in her hand. “How should I work this pen device? I see no place for ink to come out.”

I uncap it for her and hand it back. “You draw with the felt tip. If you want to erase it, you just run over the marks with the eraser.”

“Is your bodyguard, Miss Chris, not familiar with this world?” One of the scientists leans forward. “I would definitely like to see her perspective on a few things.”

The other scientist raises his hand. “Later. We can do that at a later date. For now let us pay attention.”

Chris draws a few diagrams that are too obtuse for me to understand. “This is where you missed the connection. The bug here has to pray to the fire god. Otherwise the connection will be hazy and there won’t be enough aether in the cool drive.”

It’s starting to give me a headache. For another ten minutes, Chris draws on the whiteboard, telling the scientists everything she knew about this Fourth Law and antimatter used as a suction cup for consciousness to be burned in FTL travel. In her words: “Traveling through the phlogiston requires the burning of souls.”

It seems that Dr. Barrimore is about to have an epiphany. When Chris is done, the scientists all look at each other, and then thank us. Barley, Chris, and I leave the room and return to the command center. It is significantly less hectic than before.

Mandrake approaches me, Elina by his side. “I’d like to talk to you for a minute.” He pulls me away from Barley. “Let me tell you what really happened here.”