“He was the greatest among the

  eaters. We were fortunate to put him

  away.

  - Janus

  Chapter 30: The Serpent

  Tulius was beginning to panic. Between Koga Kane, the light wielding warrior, and the battle for the skies, he was down to a third of his force. Noticing his distress, Martzia proposed something that only served to rile him even more.

  “Shall I order a retreat? You’ve lost this battle, sir.”

  “Shut up!” he screamed. This was not possible. He could not, and would not, fail again.

  “Overlord Thanator will be most… displeased,” she said, keeping her tone even.

  Tulius gripped his head in frustration. His headache was growing to the point of agony. “How could this have happened?” he wondered. His victory was assured. This day had been years in the making, and now all was lost.

  “At least,” he thought, “I’ve completed project J?gumangr for the Overlord…”

  “That’s it…” he muttered under his breath.

  “What’s it, sir?” Martzia asked.

  “Haha! That’s it! That’s what I’ll do!” he said with newfound vigor.

  “What are you-”

  Before she could react in time, Tulius shot a taser blast at Martzia, stunning her as she fell to the ground convulsing. The whole bridge looked at him in shock as he brought up J?gumangr’s top technician on his H.I.C. They watched him with bated breath.

  “Turn on the device.”

  “Commander Tulius… I don’t think that would be-”

  “Are you questioning me?”

  “No, sir. It’s just that the Krieger boy said that the device might need more-”

  “Do it right now, blast it! Do you hear me? The time has come! Do it!”

  “Yes, Commander Tulius!”

  Over the hologram, Tulius could hear the whirring of the device as it began to turn on. Rushing to the viewing port, he looked on the horizon to see a massive portal begin to open up in space. Tulius grinned, as the mighty beast roared in wrath, nearly deafening them all.

  J?gamangr had returned.

  “What… have you done?!” Martzia rhetorically asked, recovering from the taser blast. “Turn it off!”

  “I’ve saved us, you fool! Don’t you see? J?gamangr will destroy the universe, and all our enemies will fall. The Triumvirate will make us gods, and we will remake the universe in a better image. OUR image!”

  “You’ve lost your mind, Tulius. This was not the Triumverate’s plan at all!” Martzia replied, shaking her head.

  “Plans change! And so will we!”

  Before Martzia attempted to harm him, an alarm rang over the intercoms. A robotic female voice rang out to warn them. They had been compromised.

  “Warning, breach detected. Troopers mobilize.”

  “The enemy is on board,” Martzia stated, licking her lips. “I’m going to kill them. Then I’m coming back to kill you, old man.”

  Tulius chuckled.

  “It doesn’t matter. Soon, I’ll truly be a god! You will be branded a traitor to the cause!”

  Martzia shook her head, as she rushed off towards the where the incursion was taking place. Tulius did not doubt his decision. Why create the device, if not to use it? Martzia was too blind to see the end goal of all of this. This universe had to be remade if it was to finally have order. How could she not see that? Did she not believe in their leaders? In the science? In the vision?

  “She’ll see,” he muttered, looking at the green beast on the horizon through his viewing window. “Everyone will see.”

  *

  Koga could sense the enormous creature, peaking its massive eye through the portal above. With Gishni’s spear in his hand, he knew the time to act had come. Fear gripped him as he looked into the monster’s yellow eye. It was larger than he could possibly have imagined. He quickly shook off the fear that froze him. This is what he had prepared for. There was no time to be afraid. His dilemma now was how to get up there to fight the creature. The portal was still in the ozone layer, and his rocket boots would not transport him quickly enough.

  “Koga!” Luminous yelled, zooming up behind him. “We need to get you up there.”

  “Right, but how?” he asked.

  Corvid teleported behind them.

  “Anyone call for room service?”

  “Can you get me up there?” Koga asked, not in a jesting mood.

  Corvid grinned.

  “I certainly can, but are you really going up to fight that thing?” he asked in earnest.

  “What choice do I have?”

  Corvid shrugged.

  “There’s always a choice,” he replied.

  “Die, or try not to. There’s no choice at all,” Koga retorted.

  Corvid grabbed him by the shoulder, and teleported him up towards the beast. As the air around them became thinner, Koga switched over to his built in S.C.B.A. (self contained breathing apparatus). Now looking up at the beast through the portal, Corvid gave him a chip to input into his H.I.C.

  “If you’re going to die, might as well do it in style,” Corvid shrugged, before teleporting away.

  “Twilight of the Thunder God,” by Amon Amarth played over Koga’s inner speakers upon inputting the chip. Although he could not hear the music, he could sense it with his morgath. He supposed it was something to take the edge off. Besides, maybe Corvid was right. Why not go out in style?

  The monster was an aegean green color from head to tail, with piercing auburn yellow eyes. Its tongue alone could wipe out half a continent, and its teeth were old and covered in the remains of past planets it had eaten. It was a terrible creature, the likes of which could shake the very universe itself. Why Gishni had released such a creature in the universe was beyond his comprehension. Love, or in her case obsession, had driven her to doom the very universe itself. Koga was glad he had listened to Mitamin.

  The world eater had taken a lap in the space beyond the portal, and was now descending down, ready to bite the whole planet in half. Staying in flight with his rocket boots, Koga summoned the largest bolt of lightning he could muster from his palms to injure the beast, and halt its forward progress. Lightning struck the space between the beast’s eyes. Although the size of a pinhead compared to the beast, the blast did incredible damage, and caused it to retreat into the portal. Large scales flew off and disintegrated into the air by the lightning strike’s power. Koga winced at the vibrations J?gamangr’s roar made. Sensing the beast’s morgath, he could sense it was in incredible pain.

  The beast’s anger did not rise, Koga sensed, only its desire to eat. Koga almost felt sorry for it. It was like a mindless animal. With Koga being in its way, however, it would have to deal with him before having its snack. Using a power Koga was not aware the beast had, the snake shrunk down to the size of two of The Desecrators. Then, it began to chase him, attempting to eat Koga. Slithering across the sky, it creepily chased him past the portal entrance and into his own reality. Koga had never been more terrified than he was at this moment.

  Koga attempted to flee, but his rocket boots could not keep a good enough distance between him and the snake. It was incredibly fast. Turning around as the beast opened its mouth to strike, Koga hurled another bolt of lightning at the creature. Flashing from his hand to the beast’s mouth, the lightning shot out, centrally striking the beast’s mouth, with the lightning branching out all around the beast’s mouth and facial area. Stunned and hurt, the beast roared and deviated off its current course.

  Koga prepared Gishni’s spear to strike, readying it in the overhand position to send it through where he presumed would be the beast’s heart. Suddenly, it moved forward again. He tried summoning another blast of lightning, but it was too late. Barely moving to the side, he bumped off the side of the beast’s giant head.

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  Thankfully, a certain light wielder was able to step in and help.

  Luminous launched a laser blast up at the beast. It did little, save blind J?gumangr, since the laser was directed at its eyes. Still, it gave Koga the chance to recover and electrify the beast with his lightning, grabbing on its side as he electrified it.

  Despite taking damage, J?gamangr was able to regenerate almost as quickly as it took damage. The injuries it sustained only served to stun the beast at best. Koga was going to need to finish this, and quickly, if he wanted to win. Should the beast decide to grow back to its normal size, he doubted he could hold it off for much longer.

  Opting to run down the beast, Koga took his spear and tried to thrust it into it as he ran. He expected, given it was an enchanted spear, for it to do at least some damage. After all, it was the only thing that could permanently kill J?gamangr. To his dismay, it did nothing. It could not even scratch its outer scales. Koga’s concern began to grow.

  Perhaps, he reckoned, the beast’s heart needed to be exposed before the spear could do any damage. That seemed to be the most logical choice, given his latest development. Quickly, he jetted towards the beast’s neck, and struck it with lightning.

  The beast, it seemed, was growing impatient. More than that, it was now angry. Thrashing about wildly, Koga could no longer run along the beast’s backside. Falling off, he descended towards the ground, trying to get better control over his rocket boots. To his dismay, the boots were malfunctioning.

  He was falling to his death.

  The beast was now pursuing him downward, ready to eat him whole. Its piercing eyes bore through him like an auger into the dirt. It was as though he could actually see the beast rather than sensing him. Its primal rage was wicked. Its aura was wrathful. Then, beyond all that, Koga sensed something more.

  He was merely meters away from his death now. He could see Luminous in the distance speeding towards him, but she would be too late to catch him. If his body did not splat onto the ground, the beast would gobble him up. He was caught in the horns of a dilemma.

  As he drew nearer to the earth, Koga inadvertently combined his morgath with the power of the machor inside of him. Using both disciplines, he sensed something he never had before. An energy very different than anything he had sensed in the past.

  “Electromagnetic fields…” he concluded.

  Reaching out with the power, he sensed it, like simple electrical currents, could be controlled. At first, it seemed an impossible task. Closing his eyes and focusing his mind, he was able to slow his descent, and control his body as it moved through space. Using magnetism, he found he had suspended himself mid air. More than that, he could fly.

  Not having time to appreciate his all but miraculous save, he quickly shifted to the side as the beast descended to the earth. Missing the beast’s grasp by centimeters, Koga watched as the beast crashed into an empty, war torn field below. Clouds of dirt arose, as well as thunder from the beast’s collision. Koga knew better than to think the beast was dead.

  Floating down to the earth, Koga could sense the beast rising, coiling itself up and raising its ugly, corpulent head. It stared at him with the same, transfixed eyes. Seemingly stunned, Koga knew he had to make his play. Summoning a great deal of lightning, he outreached his hand and struck the beast where he imagined its heart to be. He did not know serpent biology, but given the snake’s reaction, Koga imagined he was close to the mark.

  Howling in pain as Koga continued, the beast’s heart was almost exposed. Now an open wound, Koga knew that his time to throw the spear was now. Given the whole world was at stake, he could not afford to miss or waver. Failure was not an option, nor was even the slightest misstep. As it writhed in pain, he sensed a presence beyond the beast. A presence much more innocent, and far less dangerous.

  As he drew the spear back, a feeling came over him. The same feeling he had all those years ago when he had held the knife over the witch’s throat. Behind all the scales and hunger was a life. A human life, at that.

  He was unconscious, and presumably had not chosen this miserable existence. Did he truly have the right to take a human life, a possibly innocent one, if there was a chance to save it? Had anyone, in all this creature’s years of existence, tried to save it? He wondered, pondering if taking this route was the right thing to do.

  “Koga, what’s going on over there?” Luminous asked over his H.I.C.

  He had no time to message her back. As he continued his lightning strike, walking closer to the beast’s heart, he could sense a man, tethered to the beast by strands of flesh and sinew. As more scales fell away, the image became clearer.

  Was risking the whole world really worth trying to save one life? Such a moral quandary was not particularly one he needed hashed out right now. If the beast was not destroyed, the whole galaxy would pay the price.

  “Koga!” Luminous called out, concerned.

  Koga flashed back to a few hours ago. He remembered the spell Gishni was chanting just before her passing. Like most magic, she had spoken it. The root words were ones he could roughly translate.

  “Thlethlo’gar.”

  In the old, Isjud tongue, it meant awaken.

  It all made sense now. He need not do things this way. He dropped Gishni’s spear next to his side.

  “What are you doing?!” she asked, seemingly able to see him. “Koga!”

  Koga flew up to the beast’s eye, and landed on its snout. The beast looked at Koga, able to see the comparatively minuscule figure. Koga placed his hand upon its snout, and slowly began to concentrate…

  *

  Corvid had finally found it. The Portal Generator. A device he had commissioned, at one point, to build. He should have known the Sashyrians would be hiding it for the Triumvirate. A young Triumvirate technician aboard The Desecrator had volunteered the information after the portal’s opening. Apparently, the young Lieutenant did not want to be eaten alive.

  Corvid dawned a crimson grin as he observed the Ziggurat compound known as Hamurrabi’s Point. It was heavily guarded, but the Sashyrians did not play well with their Triumvirate overlords. Dissent among their ranks would play well into the confusion he would soon cause.

  Sashyrian and Triumvirate forces knew he had breached the compound after killing the base Commander. Corvid was glad they knew. Otherwise, he would not get to revel in their fear as much. Quickly, he cut down the others in the control room.

  Others came. Teleporting from foe to foe, his anger grew into a frenzy. He was slowly relearning all the old tricks he had been taught or invented himself. The enemy was the paint, and the base was the canvas. Corvid planned on painting a beautiful piece.

  Raptors and their riders were called to defend the compound. After he had slaughtered them all, they sent a more deadly foe: Contender-class warriors. Men permanently fused to machines and roided out, they were covered in various shields and would literally beat their foes to a pulp, similar to Mongorox Apes. Their rage could never compare to Corvid’s. As he grew in his rage, he could feel his rage begin to grow. Perhaps his enemies, if they were unlucky enough, would witness the greatest of tricks up his sleeve: his Berserker Rage Mode.

  *

  Magnus exited the transport with his crew right behind him. With Maria and her crew, as well as Red’s crew, their combined parties breached the docking bay doors, and made their way towards the bridge. A few Triumvirate combatants challenged them in the corridors, but their efforts were disorganized. In their arrogance, they must have assumed their great vessel could never be boarded. Clearly, they were wrong.

  Despite her former injuries, Maria had healed quite nicely because of the physicians of Rosari. Now, she fought bravely through Triumvirate forces with her twin blades. Red, using two laser revolvers, blasted her way through the enemy alongside Maria, working in sync with R.U.D.E. Pickett used a single saber and buckler shield, counter attacking his foes with great precision. Magnus, R.U.D.E., and Checotah were the heavy hitters of the group, using their enhanced melee abilities to scatter any Triumvirate that got in their way. Gar, Lima, and the rest of the boarding party finished off what was left.

  In one particular corridor, a Triumvirate Centurion and one hundred men stood in their path. Activating their lavender colored swords and shields, they charged towards Magnus and his men. The enemy formation was tight, and their movements were succinct.

  Magnus, Checotah, and R.U.D.E. took the lead. They met the enemy charge with one of their own. Magnus used his thrusters to lunge forward, punching the Centurion’s shield wall back. Magnus could hear the man’s arm break, as he tore his shield away and thrust him through with the Sword of Right. Checotah repetitively chopped at his foes like a mad man, until they had fallen to the floor and were crawling away. R.U.D.E. simply used his two swords to continuously attack, thereby misdirecting his foes’ defense. Subsequently, he then took advantage of their inadequate planning, and cut them down without pity.

  The enemy now formed a shield wall, assessing that their attempt to push Magnus and his people back was futile. He and his fellow heavy hitters sought to push through, but with the combined strength of the Triumvirate, they could not. Maria insisted they move.

  “Get down!” she yelled, running forward. Jumping onto the back of Charlie, she launched herself up and thrust her twin blades deep into the corridor floor. Upon doing so, a sonic wave blasted the enemy shield wall back seven meters. Now that the wall was down, Magnus and the rest of them charged forward and cut the rest of the Triumvirate down.

  “We’ve got to hurry, Magnus. If Tulius engages the ship’s warp-accelerator, we’ll be cut off from the rest of the forces,” Lima warned.

  Magnus and his entourage hurried forward through the well lit, metallic corridors. In an open area leading up to the bridge, he and his group faced off against their most challenging foes yet: the one called Martzia, Dunmar Squad, and an elite group of Triumvirate troops. Among the guard was a Taur, covered in black armor. He moved to the front of the group, eyeing Checotah as his opponent.

  “Well if it isn’t the false king and his inept subjects… come for a fight?” Martzia taunted, eyeing Maria and Red specifically.

  Magnus did not bother offering his enemies peace as he did with Azakar, nor did he bother responding. As he eyed the Dunmar squad, he readied his sword and shield. Red, Maria, and the others did the same. They would pay for letting his copilot on The Herald get killed.

  “I’ll take that as a yes then,” Martzia concluded.

  Maria, Penny, and the new addition to the Night Witch’s crew, Marriane, squared off against Martzia. Red did the same, motioning for R.U.D.E. to deal with the elite Triumvirate. Magnus ordered his normal troops to help R.U.D.E. He, Lima, Pickett, Gar, and Naf squared off against the Dunmar squad, with Checotah seemingly deciding on the enemy Taur as his opponent.

  The Taur looked Checotah up and down. They seemed to be of equal size and strength. He then noticed a small scar just above his eye. Many would have mistaken it for just an ordinary scar, but not, it would seem, for a fellow Taur.

  “You’ve taken the vow of silence, till you’ve vanquished those who’ve wronged you…” the Taur bellowed, his deep voice gathering everyone’s attention.

  The Taur activated his axe.

  “You will see your loved ones soon.”

  Checotah, obviously angered by the sentiment, charged forward, and started the conflict. Pickett knew Checotah better than anyone. He admitted to the others that nothing would stand between him, and the solemn vow he had taken.

  Martzia called her swarms of duplicates into play, and began her mind tricks on the women she faced. Magnus and his compatriots engaged the Dunmar squad, Magnus’ anger and his Titan making up for his lack of skill with a blade. He could not stand traitors.

  The elite Triumvirate tried to engage the rest of them, but R.U.D.E. appeared to have their advancement well in hand. With overwhelming strength and speed, utilizing surprise attacks and hidden weapons as well, he cut through them like a knife cuts through butter. Magnus had never seen him fight so ferociously. He also proceeded to mock them, as was his typical fashion.

  “Need some mustard with that, bloodbags?!” R.U.D.E. taunted, spinning around like a madman.

  Knocking Magnus down with the combined strength of four of them, one of the members of the Dunmar squad moved in to finish him off. Noticing this, Maria disengaged from her own battle to save Magnus, knocking over the attacker. In doing so, she accidentally tripped and fell into Magnus’ lap. They both blushed, and quickly rose to her feet.

  “Thanks,” Magnus sheepishly said.

  “Watch yourself,” Maria replied, running back to her own battle.

  Gar, arguably being the best warrior among the four, killed two of the Dunmar squad with one blow. Outnumbered, Dunmar squad tried to retreat, but were quickly cut down by Magnus and Pickett. Magnus tripped one, then caved in his chest with his Titan. Pickett skillfully slipped past his opponent’s guard, and stabbed the leader of Dunmar squad in the heart. The two of them then joined in on R.U.D.E.’s battle.

  “Get your own flesh bags to practice on, fools! These are mine!” R.U.D.E. remarked.

  Checotah and the opposing Taur’s battle was epic. None dared get in their way as they engaged, clashing their two handed axes with mighty swings again and again. Some elite Triumvirate tried to aid their comrade, but the Taur cut them down himself. It was always unwise to interrupt a duel between Taurs.

  Checotah lept high with a mighty overhand swing, probably imagining his sudden speed would catch his opponent off guard. Sadly, his attempt failed. Slicing horizontally, his enemy cut him deep in the midsection. Checotah grit his teeth in pain, seeing that his intestinal wall had been compromised. Using the heat from his own weapon, he cartarized his wound.

  Charging Checotah to finish him off, the Taur tried to ram him with his ax handle. Dropping his own ax, Checotah grabbed the handle of his opponent’s weapon, and struggled to obtain it from him. It was a battle of pure strength and wills now. Whoever took the ax would finish the other off.

  At first, the opposing Taur seemed the likely winner. Then, something came over Checotah. A berserker rage that came from the deepest recesses of the silent creature. Making the other Taur kneel, he then began to force the double headed ax down. Further and further it went, till the laser of the weapon itself began to burn the Taur’s face shield. With a final push, Checotah split the head of his enemy in half. Grabbing both axes now, Checotah aided R.U.D.E. and the others in fighting the Triumvirate.

  “Why doesn’t everybody just come over here and take my kills? Huh? Are you ladies done with the doppelganger dyke over there? Because it’s a free for all over here!”

  “Shut up, R.U.D.E.!” Red demanded, trying to concentrate on the fight.

  Fighting Martzia had been a losing battle for their little squad. A repeat of last time for the most part it seemed, according to the girl’s previous description of the battle. No matter what Maria and her group did, Martzia would just jump to another form. Then, an idea came to Penny.

  “Hey, could I have a grenade?” Penny asked Red, seeing she was a walking arsenal.

  “Catch!” she yelled, fending off an attack while throwing the grenade over to her.

  Upon catching it, Penny walked over to one of the duplicates. Feigning to trip, she fell to the floor. Leaving herself wide open at the feet of one, Martzia grinned as the advantage to take one of them out had finally come. She fell into the duplicate in front of Penny, and swung her blade high.

  “Forgetting something?” Penny asked, smiling innocently as she looked down at Martzia’s feet.

  Martzia looked down in horror as the grenade Penny had previously was now literally stuck inside of Martzia’s foot. Her foot was swollen, and was barely able to move. The grenade beeped as its clock began to wind down. Panicked, Martzia screamed and jumped to another duplicate. Sadly, the technique did not work. The grenade was stuck in her foot permanently.

  Martzia and her duplicates ran screaming from the room, just as the explosion went off out of sight. Everyone’s mouths were agape in horror, as they realized what had just happened. Penny rose to her feet and looked to Maria.

  “We did it! Yay! High five!”

  “Penny, that was really dark… and disgusting…” Maria remarked, horrified.

  “Uhg! Can’t you just be happy for me for once?! This is exactly what happened the last time I got a new boyfriend,” Penny sighed.

  Getting over it, the group finished off the elites, then ran into the bridge. There, they found another horrible scene playing out: Tulius, being crushed to death, as an image of the man with an X on his mask squeezed his grip…