Everville: The City of Worms (17 page)

“You have made your choice, now go pull the lever in front of you. That will initiate the destruction of the city.”

Chapter 26:

The Final Battle

The army of giants continued to crush the armies of Them, but on the other side of The City of Worms, the armies of Everville were not faring so well. Dozens of dragons circled the positions of the soldiers as they continued to march to the southeast. There were discussions amongst the generals of the armies about whether they should continue marching forward or turn back to the portal. The flames, which continued to pour of the mouth of the dragons, had already wiped out half of their armies, and it was unclear whether either choice would make much of a difference.

Sako looked off in the distance and saw that the small contingent of the armies of Them that had clustered to the northeast border of the city were no longer visible. There was not much that they could do at their current position, so he gave the order.

“Retreat,” Sako shouted.

The armies ran as fast as their legs would allow, but it looked as if it were pointless. Dragons circled above them. Their flames seared the towering soldiers, but many of the Ubaloo were spared the brunt of the flames.

Owen looked at the ongoing destruction of the armies, many of which were his friends, and then he pulled the lever. As he did, The City of Worms moved. The entire realm rotated around to face the direct brunt of the sun. It was a warm, blinding light.

One by one, the enormous dragons that flew overhead shimmered from the inside. Beginning from the center of their bodies and spreading outward, the element that resided in the dragons gleamed with unimaginable brightness. One flash at a time, the dragons scattered into nothingness. It was more than an explosion. The bits of flesh melted away and the force that Owen initiated scattered the fragments of the element across the reaches of the expanse to all known corners of the multiverse.

“Go! Go!” Borak shouted at the army of giants, but they could not go in the direction of the portal to Brackenbone; they had to go the other way, to the great barren wasteland that separated The City of Worms from The Other In Between. In unison, the army of giants knelt down, preparing to leap across the sky higher and faster than they had ever before.

Borak held on to the collars of the two men who had accompanied him in the standoff between Oldrik and the Fwaylan. At that moment, the army of giants launched themselves into the sky, high above the dragons and high above The City of Worms. Borak and the two made it across along with some of his men, but he could not tell with how many, and neither could Owen.

The destruction of the dragons and of the city moved outward from the center. The dragons near the armies of Everville followed suit, and one after another, the element within them shattered into pieces and blew them apart into nothingness.

“Run! Run!” Toe said. He picked up Felix, Faine, and Asher and placed them on his shoulders. Toe ran alongside Sako and Kearney, all of whom crossed the portal at the precise moment of the destruction of the city.

Owen looked across The City of Worms. From beneath the ground in the heart of the land beyond the city proper, a vast explosion sparked pure white, in the shape of the top half of a sphere. It grew like a bubble of water rising to the surface, and in a flash, every living thing that had resided in the city, except the spire, was no more.

The City of Worms was now lifeless, but the structure of the city remained. It was a renewal. The evil and the darkness that had once taken hold of the city were gone. The sun beamed down a warm gentle glow, but the city was empty. Only The Second Pillar and Owen remained. The war, the violence, and the destruction of The City of Worms had brought peace and had eliminated the evil that had taken hold so long ago.

“Owen, as anticipated, you have demonstrated great wisdom and courage, as well as humility. The choices that you have had to make have not been easy, but the decisions that are of greatest import never are. The friends that are closest to you have been spared. I have seen to that, and most of the evil that was here is now gone forever, but not all.

“Some of the armies of Them have survived, and the greater darkness will live on forever. It can never be vanquished. The battle between the light and the darkness is an endless one, and your greatest battles have yet to be fought. Your greatest enemies you have yet to meet, and the battle to save your world is just beginning.

“Now, go back to Everville and then to your home. You have reason to celebrate. Your next battle is not for a few more moments, and your next quest is not yet upon you. You have chosen your friends with great care and reflection; now it is time for you to be the rock upon which they can build their own foundations.”

The Second Pillar lifted his arm and pointed in the direction of the gates.

“But wait. Are you my—” Before Owen could finish his sentence, The Second Pillar had sent him flying through the gates. In a mere instant, and faster than light, he was transported through time and space, across Brackenbone, through the Deep Woods, and back to The Keeper’s Workshop in Everville.

“Owen! I’m so glad to see you,” The Keeper said, in the most emotional state that Owen had ever seen him.

“It’s good to see you too, Keeper. With your help we were successful in destroying the element, but as you said, at a great cost.”

“Yes indeed. We have lost one half of the armies of Everville and an unknown number of the army of Giants. Our forces have been depleted, but our spirit lives on.

“Despite the great losses that we suffered, it is necessary that we remember what is important, why we move on, and why we live. The goodness that is in each of us, the friends and family that we hold dear, and the love that we have for each other, makes all the suffering in the world worth the pain.

“One lesson you have yet to learn, Owen, is that sometimes it’s okay to take time to enjoy what’s important, and to see what makes up the wonderful world in which you live.

“As usual, the Fron have made a great celebration in your honor. I expect you to be there, and I expect you to enjoy yourself. You have saved your friends from an evil that almost ensnared us all. Now go be there for them and let them revel in your victory.”

No more words needed to be said. Owen turned and walked out of The Keeper’s Workshop and headed for the entrance to the land of the Fron aboveground. Toe, Kearney, and Sako all stood at the entrance with their arms extended and pulled Owen up from beneath the hole where he stood.

Toe put his arm around Owen, and for the rest of the evening not a word was said about those lost. All they spoke about the battle was the great victory they had won and the evil that had been defeated. It was the Fron’s way of mourning the dead and celebrating a great death in the battle against an equally great enemy.

As always, the Fron allowed themselves the indulgence of food and drink. They danced and they laughed and they told stories of the old time, a time before the breach. The night grew into morning, and the Fron slept on the tables of food and wine that were in front of them, but at dawn, Owen transported himself back to his dorm at Easton Falls University.

Owen was facing the mirror in his bathroom, about to brush his teeth. He inspected his face with great scrutiny, looking for the resemblance to his father. For a second, it appeared as if the reflection was not a reflection at all, an impression that he had felt once before, but the moment soon passed. Owen finished brushing his teeth and went to sleep.

For the moment, it looked as if good had eliminated all traces of evil in Everville and that a great victory had been won, but there was still a great darkness lurking.

In the barren wasteland surrounding The Other In Between, Borak and his men stood there stranded. They could no longer see The City of Worms. It had been upended, and empty space now took its place. The remains of Borak’s army of giants stared into the stars that shone bright on the wasteland, but it was also the first time the light had shone there as brightly as it did, and that gave them hope.

In The Other In Between, the lost souls that had moved like one organism stopped. After the motion had ceased, a few bodies, a few eyes, looked up at stars that were now visible just above the horizon. What had been a mindless horde, had for the first time been penetrated by the light from beyond, but it would not last.

Borak and his men were not the only ones in the wasteland that separated empty space from The Other In Between. The small contingent of the armies of Them were also there, far to the north of Borak’s position. The evil darkness and the souls of Them had left the army after the destruction of The City of Worms. The soldiers were no longer possessed, but they were still loyal.

Mallory stood there with a group of about fifty soldiers. There was no command structure. The soldiers who accompanied him were all of the same rank, the lowest. He took it upon himself to take control of the situation.

“Listen up, soldiers. This is my army now,” Mallory proclaimed.

Mallory started walking down the rows of soldiers and looked each of them in the eye. He inspected every inch of their face and stared each of them down, waiting for them to relent to his control.

The soldiers looked back at him. They snarled and hissed. Mucous dripped down their slimy noses and off of their faces. Their malformed bodies squirmed.

One of the soldiers, whose larger height separated him from the others, spoke up.

“Why should we follow you, Mallory? You just got here. How do we know that you are even loyal to Them? Yes, it’s true that you were a follower of Oldrik, but so was Calvin, and so was Elmer. That’s two out of three. Those aren’t very good odds in your favor.”

“Listen to me. Elmer was weak. Calvin was weak, but Oldrik was an even bigger fool.”

“What!” the same soldier exclaimed,

“You heard me. I said Oldrik was an even bigger fool,” Mallory continued, as he walked up to the soldier and got in his face.

“You see, now that I have seen the mind of Them, I also understand Them’s intentions. I also understand Them’s weakness. Them must possess the bodies of the willing. Oldrik, in becoming one of Them, has relinquished his body and joined Them in a collective mind.

“That is not all. Even Them don’t possess the fortitude to do what is necessary. The reason that Them became Them in the first place was to stop those distant races from beyond the borderlands that contained even more power than what was known. Them chose to concentrate Them’s power in The Other In Between in the hopes of preventing enslavement by those races.

“The great lie that The Keeper has spoken of was that it was necessary to concentrate power to prevent an even greater power from taking over, and in a sense, The Keeper was right. Them chose to band together and slough off the physical self to become one collective mind. The concentration of power would allow Them to stop those from beyond. Them had a noble purpose, but a willingness to do whatever it took in order to achieve that goal, an evil means to a noble end.

“There is just one problem. Them chose the wrong end. Them should have chosen a purpose that was not noble. What difference does it make if the purpose is noble, other than the fact that a noble virtue is an inherent weakness? That’s why I have decided that my end will have no virtue, and as a result, it will have no weakness.

“I have decided that my end will be pure evil. It will be the pursuit of power for the sake of power. I will do whatever I want, and no one will be able to stop me. If it suits my end to achieve more power, then I will join with the distant races when it is to my benefit and betray them when it is needed. I will concentrate all my power and surrender none. Them have renounced the power of the individual for that of the collective. That makes Them slow. Them require vast armies of drones willing to do Them’s bidding. I will have no such limitation, and as such, my power will grow without bounds.”

“That sounds fine, except for one thing. Who are you to stand against the armies of Them? We are only fifty here, but there are more in the lands that surround The Other In Between. The armies of Them will crush you. What power do you have to stop Them?”

Mallory laughed an evil laugh. It was a laugh that stuck in the hearts of the soldiers there before him. The soldiers knew there was something he had not told them. Mallory lifted up the satchel that he had stolen in the moment of the city’s destruction. He reached in the satchel and lifted out a small creature.

Like the larger worms, this one had shed its skin when it had gained sentience. Its teeth were not yet formed and its ridges were small, but it still possessed the element. Mallory had taken the worm from beneath the ground and placed it in the satchel that he had stolen. The baby dragon was now loyal to Mallory, and with the amount of element contained within the dragon, Mallory now possessed more power than the armies of Them and The Keepers combined.

The End