Chapter 51: Friends
The first Imperial siege engine fired.
The mountain literally shook.
A black iron bolt tore through the air of the Valley of Glory, slamming into the stone barrier of the camp of the revolutionists.
The stone exploded in all directions, a mass of splintered shards and clouds of dust. Three of the soldiers were knocked off their feet, landing with a dull thud on the hard dirt of the valley floor.
The impact of the second bolt, only moments later into the same section of the wall, sent the line of rebels behind it stumbling backward, their shields falling from their arms.
Cursing, they tried to regain their feet, but were unable to do so in time to protect themselves from the next bolt.
Ethan watched, a sense of foreboding growing in his chest, as the noise of the impacts echoed off the walls of the valley and the men, his friends and comrades, fell before him.
"SHIELDS!"
They raised them too late.
Ethan watched, dumbfounded, as the Imperial army advanced. It was a huge force of thirty thousand men: legionaries in full armor, marching in tight formation.
Behind them, Ethan could see rows of siege engines, each a massive frame of metal covered in thick bronze plates, held together with a network of massive silver chains. The links were adorned with tiny divine symbols that glowed each time Spark thundered overhead.
Those weren’t normal siege weapons.
Marcus had been wounded on the head by a splinter of wood, and blood from the cut above his left eyebrow ran down his face in a red stream. Ethan knew he had to get it cleaned up as soon as possible. For now, he followed Marcus’ gaze to the largest of the Imperial siege engines.
"Ethan, I think we are fucked."
"I noticed."
Doom!
Then another explosion came, rocks falling from the sky. A man screamed for medics.
Marcus looked up at the enormous storm beast circling above the mountain peaks, its massive wings spread wide enough to obscure sections of the clouds it soared through.
"Is that spark? Or..."
Ethan could see the creature of pure energy, rolling thunder and brilliant flashes of light, as a living, breathing thing with wings made of what looked like pure energy and eyes of solid, shining gold.
The creature, of course, was Spark, and it was watching the Imperial bronze machines like a hawk.
"They’re here for him. They want to tame it whatever means necessary."
Ethan followed his gaze. Instead of attacking them, the Imperial army was trying to work out the best way to blast the black creature out of the sky.
The front ranks advanced, shields up in a locked formation, but they weren’t trying to surround the camp. In fact, they were keeping as far away from the rebels as possible.
The real action was taking place with the siege crews. The men constantly shifted between different guns, taking up new angles of attack while keeping their weapons pointed up at the black creature.
The System flickered at the edge of Ethan’s vision.
[Targeting analysis complete.]
[Imperial artillery lock: Typhon-Class entity.]
[Revolutionary forces: secondary priority.]
Ethan’s expression hardened. "So that’s it."
Marcus glanced at him. "What?"
"They don’t care about us."
A third siege engine let off a shot. It flew straight past Ethan’s head, and for a moment he could feel the air rush past it. It struck the side of the mountain behind Spark with a massive explosion, sending shreds of rock and dust flying in all directions. From the rubble, a long silver chain shot up into the air.
It wasn’t aimed at the rebels.
Spark twisted and turned in midair as the chain of a massive Typhon-Class siege engine wrapped around one of its hind legs with a loud, metallic snap. The silence that fell over the valley like a physical object was broken a split second later by the enraged roaring of the storm beast.
Thunder burst out in a wide wave. The chain suddenly tightened, and the soldiers manning the machine were dragged several meters forward. Only when the brakes finally locked did they manage to hold the beast back.
"FIRE!"
Six more chains sprang out in rapid succession. Spark ripped one apart with a swipe of his claws, while another snagged his wing. The third embedded itself in the creature’s chest.
It held, and for a moment Spark’s flight wobbled. Then he plummeted toward the ground, his massive wings beating the air wildly as bolts of lightning tore through the mountains around him.
"SPARK!"
Ethan moved.
A bright blue flash of light erupted as Ethan materialized beneath Spark’s weight. He reached up with both hands and drove downward, cracking the ground beneath him. Spark pressed down on Ethan, his full weight bearing down as the young mage struggled to hold his ground.
Spark’s golden eyes locked onto Ethan’s. His father’s voice was hoarse with strain, but unmistakable.
"Father..."
"I’m here, bud. I’m here, don’t worry."
Ethan pushed with all his might against the beast’s belly. He felt a surge of power flowing up through his arms and into Spark.
It rose slowly at first, then picked up speed until the creature bounded upward, soaring back into the sky.
A searing sensation shot through his palm. The chain links had burned him, and his skin was smoking. The pain was sharp and far from normal. Ethan stared at his hand in dismay.
[WARNING.]
[Foreign divine material detected.]
[Material designation: Divine Silver.]
[Secondary function detected.]
Ethan’s eyes sharpened. "Secondary function?"
The chain pulsed in his hands, a non-energy material flowing like liquid through the silver links. There was a pulling sensation, trying to reach past his skin and draw out whatever material this had been designed to extract.
Ethan violently yanked the chain in opposite directions with both hands. With a loud crack, the silver links snapped apart and shot off in all directions.
The huge siege engine was torn apart in a burst of fire and twisted, blackened bronze. The soldiers manning the engine were thrown across the dirt, their screams lost in the explosion.
Marcus’ eyes locked onto Ethan. "another vision?"
"They’re not trying to restrain Spark," Ethan said, turning toward the Imperial side of the battlefield. "They’re trying to take something out of him. I don’t know what..."
A horn sounded from the Imperial side. The remaining siege engines ceased firing, and the army parted down the center, like a gate opening.
Ethan saw a mounted commander whose armor differed from that of the legionaries around him—black plates with a silver eagle on the chest. Behind him, six priests in dark robes walked, each pair carrying enormous metal containers.
The commander stopped several dozen meters away and raised his voice.
"Revolutionary!"
Ethan stepped forward. His face covered. "That’s..me."
"You are ordered to surrender the Typhon-Class entity."
Ethan glanced up at Spark. The creature still circled, trailing electrically charged lines where the chains had bitten into its skin. "No," he said.
Ethan looked past the commander at the thirty thousand soldiers arrayed before him, ranks of spears, shields, and weapons, the six priests with their huge containers of divine silver, and the remaining siege engines still reared in their firing positions.
"Why did you bring thirty thousand soldiers to capture one creature?"
"Not kill it," Ethan said.
The commander said nothing, and the silence was answer enough.
Ethan smiled slightly. "That means you need it alive."
Still no reply. The smile disappeared.
"Why?"
The Commander raised his hand. The troops behind him began to adjust their grip on their spears and shields. "We have no obligation to explain ourselves to a traitor," the Commander said.
Ethan watched as a new chain was fired from the far left of the Imperial line. Spark tore it apart with one swipe of his claws.
Ethan said, "You should probably explain."
"Or what?"
Ethan pointed upward.
As the two sides confronted each other, a crack suddenly erupted across the sky. Unlike a lightning bolt, however, the crack spread outward as the clouds themselves were ripped asunder by some unseen force.
The edges of the spreading rift glowed with faint white light, but the darkness beyond was far more desolate than any night. A second rift appeared almost instantly, then a third.
Marcus stared up in horror. The Imperial commander, for a moment, forgot about the battle below. Slowly his hand dropped to his side as reports flooded his vision.
[WORLD EVENT DETECTED.]
[DIMENSIONAL INSTABILITY INCREASING.]
[FOREIGN WORLD SIGNATURES: 19.]
[FOREIGN WORLD SIGNATURES: 31.]
[FOREIGN WORLD SIGNATURES: 47.]
"What the hell is that?" Marcus whispered.
Light traveled through the cracks in cascading explosions of heat across the valley. What fell through looked like burning rocks at first, trailing blackened air and thick smoke.
But as they descended, it became clear they were something else entirely, something that had opened the sky to come through.
The Imperial commander turned to address his ranks, his voice lacking its previous confidence. "Hold formation! HOLD FORMATION!"
"COMMANDER!" a soldier shouted from the rear.
The commander’s head whirled toward Ethan. Behind him, another explosion erupted. Soldiers ran frantically in all directions to escape the blast. As smoke cleared, a rectangular metallic object about the size of a small chest came to rest in front of the commander.
He picked it up. The System reacted instantly.
[UNKNOWN OBJECT DETECTED.]
[ORIGIN: UNREGISTERED.]
[WORLD CLASSIFICATION: UNKNOWN.]
[WARNING.]
[OBJECT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO EXIST IN THIS WORLD.]
Ethan’s fingers tightened. A voice came from behind him.
"Spark...who did you call?"
[Secondary function: help called.]
[HIGH LEVEL TYPHON DETECTED]
Spark looked at him.
"Friends..."