Gloom Rising (The Book Wielder Saga 1) (34 page)

Brooke and Alexander watched the fleet drawing closer from the top of the Capital’s walls. The biggest airship was at the front of the Inquisition forces. Like the others it was triangular in shape and had silver and white coloured armour, but where the others had one hover rotor at their rear section, the large one had two. It was bulkier too, with several smooth-edged rectangular sections obtruding from its side.

Brooke said nothing as she lined up a shot with her anti-material rifle. She had selected one of the standard airships’ plasma-blue hover rotor as her target, and now she was waiting patiently for it to come into range.

The Military Peace Keepers on the wall didn’t know which way to look. The clouds above them were dark and going crazy, white and black ‘light’ was surging into the sky from the World GOVT building, and there were a fleet of Inquisition airships closing in on them. The gang members around them stayed calm and collected. The MPK’s knew they were different and had abilities, but they didn’t want to lose their composure in front of them, so they snapped their focus away from the strangeness within the city and readied the anti-aircraft weaponry.

- - -

The Trinity hit squads exited their secret Catacomb portals all over the city. Some were in alcoves down alleyways, some were in basements, some were in sewers, and some were even in people’s cupboards and attics. They snuck into the city fast and tried to keep a low profile until the Inquisition had begun their assault.

The squads were shocked at how quiet the Capital City was. There was no traffic except for enemy activity, and the streets were almost completely empty. They assumed a curfew had been put into effect, but that didn’t explain why some people still loitered about casually; a little too casually considering the sky above was a plate of purple, dark grey, and black clouds. The impending merger drew their attention for a few moments. Even the more experienced members of the hit squads had never seen anything of the like. It was strange seeing magic used so liberally, so overtly. The squads only stared for a few seconds, a minute at most, but it was too long. Almost every squad was approached by the city’s residents.

“Beat it punk,” a Trinity Vampire said to a scruffy looking man in a hoodie.

The man just stood there smiling strangely, and then some others came to join him.

“What is with these weirdoes?” his butch female Werewolf companion asked.

“They’re creeping me out,” a short male mage said shakily.

“Afraid of a few humans, are you?” the Werewolf woman joked in a snidely tone. “How did you even get to be on a hit squad?” she asked harshly, right before her head was blown off by a bolt of sickly green lightning.

Elsewhere down an alleyway, a pale looking woman in a corset and hooded cloak stroked a female Mage’s hair, making her flinch. “Don’t you want to play?” the pale woman asked with a smile.

“You’ve got a human girlfriend now? I’m jealous,” her female Vampire comrade chuckled.

“Get away from me, bitch, or I’ll make you regret it!” the Trinity Mage said angrily.

A woman in an elegant little black dress stepped out of a shadowy recess. She was the spitting image of Marissa Aluniana. “Hear that girls?” she spoke in a scary, inhumanely distorted voice. “She does want to play.”

Mortissa and her needle maidens descended down upon the two Trinity ladies, stabbing, slashing, and slicing as they cackled horrendously.

- - -

The airships were in firing range of the walls, and the walls came into firing range of the airships.

Brooke pulled the trigger and sent a high explosive armour piercing round into her target’s glowing circular rotor. The shot connected and blew a section off, causing it to spin and drop slowly to the ground. She tutted, disappointed in herself. Brooke doubted that any would die in the slow-fall crash, but at least it would be one less in the air to worry about.

MPK’s fired at will with rocket launchers, high powered machine guns, and the wall mounted cannon, flak and missile batteries. The Mages and Vampire Bloodmages amongst them cast shields as far and as wide as they could, and the Werewolf Shamans began summoning violent storms, although they were nothing in comparison to the one that Winston was creating behind them.

Simultaneously, the airships opened fire with lances of plasma beams, miniguns, and flashing blue missiles. The rectangular side sections of the Arbiter detached and flew off as eight unmanned drones with pointed fronts sent beams of plasma shooting from the tips. Cannons and machine guns folded out from their sides, and they too let rip at the Inquisition’s foes upon the wall.

Plasma energy and gunfire collided with magical shielding, and missiles exploded in passionate blue fire atop the wall, breaking the shielding in places and sending both MPK’s and Supernaturals flying into the air before they were completely immolated.

Magical lightning shot down from the sky onto the top of the airship, cackling and cracking the lighter top armour, and interfering with the rotas. The anti-air weaponry from the wall smashed into the thick under armour, penetrating in places but mostly just scratching the paintwork. The missile batteries were more effective. One salvo got lucky and managed to shatter the cockpit of an airship which then exploded from within, making the whole craft go up in a sphere of blue fire and sending the wreckage slamming into other nearby airships.

There were losses on both sides, but it was still practically a stalemate. The Arbiter, its drones, and a six other airships flew over the wall and decreased their altitude briefly to allow the shock troopers to cable their way down. The other remaining Inquisition craft stayed put to pester the wall forces, or circled the inner city to pick off the MPK vehicles. The damaged airships did their utmost to land, or crash, inside the Capital’s walls to get their troopers into the fight.

The shock troopers, in their thick white power amour, clashed with the MPK’s in the city, exchanging plasma and regular gunfire liberally. Grenades were thrown, cars detonated, and buildings ravaged. The Inquisition gained ground quickly, until the Shadow Circle Supernaturals joined the fray and tipped the odds back in the city’s favour.

In the shadows and darker corners of the city, the Trinity’s hit squads and assassins fought desperately with the reality fuelled Gloom Alternatives. Pistols, rifles and shotguns, swords and claws tore through the Alt’s stuffing and limbs, but they soon got their revenge with their weird disturbing magic, rusty melee weapons, cackling flashes, and brilliant bursts of bright green energy from the ridiculously dangerous weaponry from Pollutia. Mortissa and her needle maidens were death incarnate as they danced and skipped through the city’s back alleys, laughing ecstatically.

- - -

The group atop the World GOVT watched nervously as the Inquisition fleet approached and the city below descended into open warfare. Those around Winston struggled to keep their footing as his power kept radiating outwards in ever increasing magnitude.

“Winston, could you please... hurry up a bit?” Lewis called.

“This isn’t easy...” Winston struggled to reply.

“We’re going to run out of time, that mammoth airship seems indestructible!” Xavier shouted over the din.

“If you’ve got a secret plan, now would be the time sweetie!” Veronica yelled.

Veronica was right, of course. She’d either read his mind, or she just knew him well enough by now to know that he wouldn’t have calculated this chain of events. As the Supernaturals within the building started to shoot their spells into the seven Inquisition ships, and bright lances of blue energy shot back in retaliation, missiles and gunfire were deflected frantically by a struggling Veronica, and Winston pulled his trump card.

Portals opened on the ground and in the air. Alt-filled Spidercars and Spidertanks charged into the city discharging evil green bolts, beams, and blasts from their magical energy weapons. They were followed by a mob of raging Alternatives, the Mayor’s retinue of altered troopers, and then the Commodore’s men who marched proudly into the city and assembled in formation to shoot the Inquisitors in organised waves of gunfire. Combined with the Shadow Circle Supernaturals, the mismatched loose alliance between the Trinity and the Inquisition stood no chance.

From the air, the Archmage’s old dragons flew into the battle and blasted the airships with purple and black streams of fire from their jaws. It burst and melted the weaker top armour, and soon the dragons were landing on top of them to savagely tear through the metal with their long claws. The airships tumbled down into the city at random, crashing into the roads or buildings before exploding dramatically and spreading blue flames all around like wildfire. It wasn’t long before only the Arbiter and its drones were left. Dragons raked their claws across its hull, but couldn’t penetrate its tougher amour. They blasted it furiously but the drones intercepted them quickly and chased them off. Some of the old beasts were shredded in a haze of bullets and energy.

Despite the interruptions, the Arbiter continued its attack on the rooftop without mercy. Veronica called upon all her strength to deflect wave after wave of attacks but her powers were dwindling fast. Lewis hurled his most powerful spells at the craft but they just ricocheted off the sturdy armour.

- - -

Kevin Wallace had a feeling the assault on the Capital would be bad, but he never imagined that it would be this insane. His forces were diminishing quickly and the death toll of both Inquisition and innocents below was continuing to rise. Most aggravating of all though was that he was so close to ending this madness but unable to land a hit on the fiend on the roof. Only one option came to mind, and it was a bad one.

He activated the Arbiter’s loudspeakers. “Winston Reynolds, surrender now and you will not be harmed. My leader, the head of the Inquisition, wants to talk with you. Please end this insanity now before there is any more death. I can and will stop you if you do not comply.”

He wasn’t surprised when there was no reply from the evil creatures on the roof, so he activated the ship’s self-destruct sequence.

Accessing the ship’s PA system, he gravely addressed the crew. “Crew of the Arbiter – the only way we will stop these damned creatures and their malicious intentions is to detonate the ship’s plasma reactors at point blank range. If you wish to leave then use the cables and do so. You have done your duty and served me well, and this will be your only chance.”

“We’re staying, Sir,” the pilots said, and the rest of the crew followed suit.

Kevin nodded proudly. “Take us in closer then, and let’s end this.”

- - -

Veronica groaned as the last remaining airship began to fire again. This time it was getting closer and closer, so she had to work extra fast to protect Winston and the others. Luckily the dragons were keeping the drones busy, or else the others and herself would’ve been finished a long while ago.

The Arbiter began to cackle and throb with blue lightning, its rotors whining oddly, and the whole thing shimmered as its temperature increased to dangerous levels.

“You close, man?” Lewis cried as he sent another pointless blast of magic towards the airship.

“It’s getting there!” Winston shouted back. Je hoped the merger would happen soon or else his whole body would give up the struggle.

“They’re going to blow it,” Xavier said to Veronica. “It’s self-destructing,”

“Oh fuck!” she said, while shielding more bullets and sending more missiles off course.

“You look after Winston,” Xavier said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Good luck with the wedding. I’m really happy for you both.” He smiled sadly. “I wish I could’ve been the one to give you away.”

“What... are... you... talking about?” she strained to ask, but she knew he was up to something drastic.

“You already know, Veronica. Thank you for working with me for all these years. It’s been... fun.” He smiled, and sprinted towards the edge of the building.

They all watched on helplessly as Xavier leapt towards the Arbiter and smashed through its cockpit feet first.

With an expert roll and swift manoeuvre, he had shot both pilots and was in good form to take down the General. Although he was only human, his power gave him the strength to deflect a few of Xavier’s blows, but ultimately it was futile. With a super quick strike, Xavier stabbed him up through the chest and upwards with his spell-forged blade. Taking only a moment of time, he shot the crew in sight with his pistols, moved to the cockpit, and slung his precious blade out of the shattered glass. It landed point down into the concrete of the roof.

Veronica dropped to her knees and screamed for him to come back, tears streaming down her pretty face, but Xavier was already at the controls. He quickly learned the layout and flew the Arbiter upwards and out, until he was out of range of the city. It exploded in an enormous spherical blue blast just outside of the Capital’s walls. It was so powerful that there wasn’t even any visible debris; just smoke and ash.

- - -

Alice had ordered the retreat to the remaining forces as soon as General Wallace’s ship had stopped transmitting.

She had left the control room straight after and made her way to the top Central Tower, to the ruins of Edgar’s study.

The workmen doing the repair were standing around, not working but just staring into the distance. She couldn’t blame them, because when she followed their eye line to the horizon in the direction of Rura, she could see the strange purple clouds curdling in the sky.

Alice knew that she had failed. It was too late.

- - -

With one last push of power, Winston completed the merger. A flood of white and black magic jolted into the black and purple sky, and a wave of energy surged outwards from the World GOVT building and throughout the city. The Archmage had arrived.

The fires went out and the fighting temporarily stopped. Some buildings stayed the same, others became darker and decayed, and a few were a weird cross between both. All the Alternatives, creepy crawlies, and other creatures from the Gloom now populated the Capital alongside its usual human, Supernatural, and regular wildlife occupants.