Chapter 261: A Firelit Sky (1/2)
We discussed a lot more about the specifics involved with what we were doing on Giess and abroad. I tuned most of it out, feeling a bit numb. That was okay. I didn't want to be fully invested in what I was about to do either way. Tearing the cities of Giess apart would devastate the Adair's cause, no doubt, but it involved killing hundreds of thousands of people.
Those thoughts tumbled in my mind as the deliberation died down. It was midday by the time we finished the discussion, and everyone acted overjoyed. We would save more gialgathens while dishing out more damage. They could think that because they wouldn't be the ones doing damage.
That burden rested upon my shoulders.
I paced towards my room as everyone said their goodbyes. During the night, I'd lay siege towards Agatheo, the next city on Giess. Without anyone else there, I contemplated a few tactics to destroy the city. Repeated Orbital Bombardments, mana bombs, even smothering the city with Event Horizon, these options all popped out to me. One option stuck out, and it was a far more straightforward than those options - throwing rocks. Instead of lobbing myself, I would generate a stone the size of a large cliff and drop it on the city. From high enough up, it would lay waste to the entire region.
Simple. Brutal. Effective. It would be all those things and more. It made the job simple and easy, like pressing a button or pulling a lever. It rested on me with the weight of a mountain, however. No one else noticed my emotional turmoil as I walked towards my room.
In that lonely temple, I prepared myself for the task ahead. All I needed was mana, so I charged crystallized mana stones as I waited. I mapped out the route I'd take to destroy the cities, and they wouldn't last long. If anything, they should've slowed down their hybridization. Because they did it so fast, they unleashed this newfound hell onto themselves.
With my back leaning against a stone wall, I tossed a chunk of crystallized mana into my portal storage. I did this for another hour before a familiar face showed up. She knocked on the open doorway before leaning her head through the opening,
”Hey, anyone there?”
I smiled, a genuine grin, ”No one important.”
Althea rolled her eyes, pacing in, ”Huh? Really now? We can agree to disagree then.”
I stood up, and we hugged each other. I held her longer than I expected to, and I let out a deep sigh like I'd been holding my breath. As I pulled back, she kept her hands wrapped around my waist. She raised an eyebrow,
”I won't ask what's going on since you don't look like you want to talk about it.”
I nodded, my smile turning sad. Althea pursed her lips,
”Uh, even if I'm, like, super curious.”
I widened my eyes, ”I'll be destroying a city. Well, cities. I don't know. It's different when I'm doing something with other people behind me. It's easy to stand on the front of a moving ship. Now it feels more like I'm dragging the vessel behind me. It's a lot, even for me.”
She frowned, ”That's hard.”
”Damn right it is...but thanks for noticing. It means the world to me.”
”It's the least I can do.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes.
”What do you mean? You don't owe me anything. Hell, I'm the reason you're wrapped up in this.”
Her eyes narrowed, ”That's not true. We all agreed to go to Giess to get rid of our unknown statuses. We all agreed each time you went to do something as well. You never acted on your own. You let us have our say. Besides, you helped me get out from under Yawm's thumb. I'd say that's worth something.”
She peered down, losing steam,
”Uhm, in my opinion.”
”Well, thanks.” I puffed my chest, ”I guess I am pretty awesome.”
”Okay, I take it back.”
”Too late. I'm already feeling better.”
Althea phased from my arms, causing me to stumble forward. She popped up behind me, kicking me down. I fell, stopping my momentum with a bit of gravitational manipulation. She pretended to pull my arm back,
”Gotcha.”
I followed her lead, acting as if she almost had me. She counted aloud, ”One, two-”
I turned us around with a gravitational vortex. We flipped weightlessly suspended before I let us down with a gentle tug. I pushed her down by her wrists,
”Who's got who now?”
She acted as if she was struggling for a second before batting her eyelashes, ”Oh no! You've got me. Ahhhh.”
She blinked at me. I rolled my eyes while pushing myself up, ”Okay, how do you even know about wrestling, anyway?”
She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me close, ”I've been reading some old human magazines. There are these fake wrestling ones I can't get enough of. They're like...dramas, but all muscly.”
I furrowed my brow, ”Wait a minute. You like professional wrestling?”
She blushed, ”Yeah, so what?”
I laughed before murmuring, ”It's nothing. I just didn't expect that.”
She shrugged, ”They're interesting. One guy called Turbo Slam reminded me of when we met. He's kind of a jerk, but a...lovable jerk, I guess?”
I raised my eyebrows, leaning close to her, ”Should I be concerned?”
”What? I'd never go out with the guy. He's way too hairy.”
I smiled, ”You know who you remind me of?”
”Who?”
”Miss Magisteria. She's a wrestler that my mom loved to watch. We'd always see them on Sunday afternoon after some of the boring football games.”
”What was she like?”
”Miss Magesteria loved to act like she's weaker than she is before she turns on her enemy.”
”Not her, I mean your mom.”
I frowned, ”Oh. Her.” I furrowed my brow, ”That's tough to answer. She died of cancer when I was seven, so I don't remember her all that well. What I do recall is just general 'feelings' she gave me.”
Althea leaned close, ”Tell me about them.”
I cleared my throat while thinking. ”So, uhm...Well, she was hard-headed. I remember that much. She had a way of getting dad to do whatever she wanted. She was a stay at home mom, so we hung out all the time. I always thought she was the most fun mom out there.”
I peered at the temple wall, ”Even though she wasn't the one making money, she was the one that made the decisions. Without her, dad was just...lost, yunno? It was like he poured everything he had into her and their life. When she passed, it broke him. He was never the same after that.”
Althea raised an eyebrow, ”I've never heard of her or him. Why don't you talk about them?”
”Because those were dark times in my life.”
”Darker than facing Yawm?”
I shrugged, ”Yeah. Probably. At least when fighting the tree man, I had some choice in the matter. Powerless as I felt, I wasn't trapped. I got to make a few calls about what happened. Even if it was between two terrible choices, I still got to decide in the end what happened to me.”
I shook my head, ”It wasn't like that with dad. I tried everything, and nothing worked with him. Every time I got close, he would break down whatever relationship we built up. By the time I started avoiding the house, I was sick of him and his constant rants.”
Althea put a hand on my shoulder, ”That must have been hard.”
I sighed, ”It was, but I'm not that powerless kid anymore. If anything, I'm like a living nuclear bomb. I have more power than I know what to do with. It's scary sometimes.”
Althea peered off, ”Yeah. I get that sometimes too.”
”It's not all bad, though.” I put a hand on her cheek, ”I have you now.”
She pressed her hand against mine, ”Only if I have you too.”
”Always.”
We stared at each other for a moment, the tense silence anything but awkward. I wrapped my fingers between hers before giving Althea a light squeeze and letting go. I sighed, ”You know Miss Magesteria?”
”Yeah.”
”I made the name up.”
Althea pushed my hand off of her, ”Oh come on, don't do that. That sounded like a real name.”
I smirked, ”That's because any name sounds real in professional wrestling.”
”Whatever. They're cool.”
She pushed herself up in a fluid motion, launching herself off the floor before landing on her feet,
”I can see you're doing fine. I'll just leave then.”
I pulled myself up, hugging her from behind, ”Hey, I didn't mean it.”
She turned to me, ”Really? It sounded like you did.”
”I didn't. It's cool you like something like that anyway. We should watch it together sometime.”
”What? There are videos?”
”I'm sure someone kept some from before the culling. We can ask around at the home base and find some. It shouldn't be too hard to track some down.”
Her eyes lit up like stars in a night sky,
”That would be amazing. You promise?”
I grinned, ”For sure.”
We hugged each other before she walked towards my door's entrance. With her hips swinging, she flipped her hair on her way out,
”Just remember, Turbo Slam keeps his promises.”
I scoffed, ”Okay, sure. So would Miss Magesteria.”
As she left, a deep sense of nostalgia washed over me. I blinked a bit before relishing the sensation. It reminded me of who I was, where I came from, and when I was a different kind of person. For better or worse, I turned into who I was now. Peering down at my status, I checked the time.
I was almost late.
Leaving with a jolt of gravity, I walked through the hallway, meeting up with the portal specialists from Schema's camp. They carried more scars than when we first met, and their eyes carried bags from sleepless nights. I stood tall above them, and Spear sat cross-legged, meditating in the courtyard.
I called out to him,
”Hey, we're about to get started with Torix's new plan.”
As if awoken from the dead, Spear shifted with sand pouring from his frame. He walked over towards us while swinging his spears. I turned towards the others,
”You guys are ready?”
The three warpers nodded. Spear started the portal chain, getting us to the general vicinity of the area. Through the gateway, a lush, humid forest sprawled out before us. I stepped through the portal with a wave of Event Horizon. The life liquified into mana, clearing the area out to the mulch of dead plant matter below.
Shivering a bit, the teleportationists followed suit. Once on the other side, I turned towards an eldritchian rift, the one Spear had once guarded. The dungeon crumbled about a month ago, making way for an opened breach. The entrance towards an icy glacier collapsed, the freezing doorway smashed to powder. This never melting ice spread from the opening and into a jungled expanse.
From this glacier, several densely furred walruses stared at us, icy picks replacing their tusks. They hobbled towards the portalists before I took a step forward. The eldritch's will to fight disintegrated, each of them quivering in fear at the sight of me. They lowered their heads, bowing to me before I culled them with Event Horizon.