Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (2 page)

The
larger
formation began banking to the left and Sariel followed,
struggling to shove
his emotions and insubordinate thoughts back into a place where no one could see them. 
What his soldiers needed now was confidence and assurance.  Behind the protective barrier of his helmet, Sariel opened his mouth.  The air around him seemed to come alive as a single tone, crystal clear, grew in volume until it filled the spaces between him and his soldiers. 
One by one, each winged
angel added a harmonic tone, joining the
s
kal
a
gid
, a Song of Understanding. 
Immediately, their thoughts were melded together in
a
form of group-communication far more efficient than words.

“Stay close to me,” he told them.  “
D
o what you do best.  Fly fast.  Strike hard. 
Eliminate the
enemy.
  Give them a taste of your
vaepkir
and let the
Marotru
regret their unfaithfulness to the
Holy One
!”

At once, the spirits of his friends were lifted
.  Their wings
seemed to move with greater agility.  The tension drained from their muscles, even as the grip on their weapons tightened.  And now it was Sariel’s turn to experience the benefit of emp
owerment that came with shared understanding.  For ages, they had r
elied on one another; fought side by side
in countless battles
.  Through it all, the strength of their conviction and the solidarity of
their
purp
ose is what had kept them alive.  Sariel now felt invincible
, just as they did
.  Up ahead,
the mist parted into two swirling vortexes
i
n the wake of the wing leader, an instant before the remainder of the attack group
entered the cover of darkness.

For a moment
, all seemed silent and still.

When
they
exited t
he concealing fog
,
the
stillness
was gone.  The rear lines of the demonic army could
just
be seen across the
wide
valley. 
Their writhing mass appeared as a blotch of shadows, consuming any remnants of ambient light that struggled for existence in this harsh environment
.
 
In stark contrast, the radiant forms of the
Anduar
ym
shone
through the enemy silhouettes like a sunrise in the
T
emporal
R
ealm.  The wingless ground
soldiers
were already engaging the
demons
.

At the center of the enemy formation were the
Nin-Myndarym
.  Protected
by lesser demons
on all sides, t
hese Unshapers were the heart of th
e army
’s power, the dark fulcrum around which every shadow pivoted.  As the polar opposites of the
Myndarym
, Sariel reserved a special hatred for these evil creatures.
  He locked his eyes on his objective and brought his arms forward, clasping his
vaepkir
together into a rigid, bladed frame that would act as a ramming weapon.

In seconds, the warriors of the sky closed the distance
.  Keeping low to the terrain, the
formation of
Iryllurym
struck at
the
center of the
Marotru
army,
banking
left and right at the
last moment to
fracture the rear guard in two.  The ranks of lesser demons parted like
a
cleft in a mountain, exposing the Un
s
hapers.

Sariel braced himself
.

His
arms jolted
violently
as
his
vaepkir
sliced
through
alternating spaces of air and the negative mass of the
Nin-Myndarym
bodies. 
Each
density change
brought
a rapid succession of glaring lights
that
illuminated grotesque faces, crooked limbs, and gaunt torsos
.  With his momentum slowing and his weapons threatening to tear away from his grip, Sariel pulled up just before reaching the front lines.

Hi
s
massive wings now
stabbed
upward,
seizing large quantities of air
before
thrusting them downward, propelling his body into the sky.  The other six members of his team followed closely as they gained altitude and readied themselves for the next attack.  Below, traces of light still lingered, marking the path of the
Iryllur
attack.  They appeared as a
braided
cord of
pale colors
, unraveling at one end, with the individual threads radiating outward along the rear of the enemy
ranks
.  Hundreds of demons had perished in a matter of seconds.  Some were still disappearing into brilliant
explosions of
whiteness
.

Gradually, but with an exponential i
ncrease in volume, a low rumble emerged from the sounds of battle
.  It rose quickly to a thunderous roar, drowning out all others.
  The chaotic
jumble of
light and shadows on the battlefield
below seemed to calm
as soldiers on both sides of the conflict
ceased
fighting
.

Then the
Anduar
ym
began to fall.

The ground beneath their feet dissolve
d
, opening into a gaping hole like the mouth of a
colossal
monster.  It started at the back of the angelic force, rippling forward to engulf the soldiers
,
and finally the front lines of the demonic horde
as well
.  When the last
angelic
points of light were swallowed into the belly of the earth, Sariel real
ized that the battle was over.

In just a few seconds, the entire
Anduar
army had vanished.

Only when he saw movement at the edges of the crater did Sariel realize what had happened.  At first, a dozen tentacles appeared.  Then it was thousands, as the
Nedaret
began crawling from their subterranean domain.  The massive demons moved with an un
natural
gait.  Folded, snakelike appendages shot out, then unfurled to the extent of their reach, heaving the weight of the demons’ upper bodies along the ground.  It was
disgusting
enough to encounter these burrowing abominations in their own domain, even more so above ground.

With his eyes fixed on the
swarming shadows
emerging onto the
battlefield, Sariel didn’t see the counter attack until one of his soldiers abruptly plummeted from the
formation,
spiraling downward in the
smothering
embrace of a winged demon.  Looking up, he only had time to flinch as the descending cloud of fangs and claws engulfed all that remained of the angelic
forces
.

*
 
*
 
*
 
*

The sky
overhead
loomed
black
, fading to the deepest blue as it
reached
the horizon.  The dark silhouette of mountains marked the end of one realm and the beginning of another. All was enveloped in a blanket of silence. 
Within the endless expanse
of the
firmament
,
small
points of light
pierced the darkness
.  Scattered against the backdrop of nothingness
,
their light swelled in
intensity until the
ir multitude
s
c
overed the
heavens
.
Their brilliant whiteness pulsed, sometimes in unison, sometimes
individually
.  In the moments between pulses, hints of color played around their edges.

Gradually, some stars dimmed,
showing
their
distinct
colors as their brightness
decreased
. 
Drifting closer to each other, they
began to
draw inward and
spiral around a vortex
;
their speed increasing with proximity to the
large
,
fiery
star
at their center. 
Q
uickly
, they
coa
lesced into one
multi-colored
orb
.

In reaction to this movement,
the remaining points of light
parted and
momentarily hovered as if confused, making way
for this new
spectacle. 
They encircled the orb from a safe distance and were joined, o
ne by one,
with
white stars from f
a
rther away
.  S
lowly
the stars arranged themselves
in
concentric circles around
the rapidly spinning orb
.

And still, all was silent.

T
he core of the orb flared red with fire, seeming to issue a challenge
to the hovering circle of stars
as
it ex
panded
to occupy more space
.

The challenge was answered by a collective
brightening of the white stars, driving back the darkness of the night and washing the sky with their intensity.  Altogether
, their brilliance
was
twice
that
of their dimmer counterparts.

Without warning the orb burst,
scattering
millions of
prismatic
colors in all directions.

At the same
instant
, the
B
right
S
tars converged upon the
D
im
O
nes, moving to
swallow
the force of their expansion.  At the moment of impact,
the two groups became one.  T
ime
,
itself
,
seemed to stretch out as if all of creation held its breath.

In a blinding flash, the
explosion
sent a bolt of light to the earth.  Sparks
were hurled
in
all
direction
s
;
skipping
across the ground
, a
rc
ing
through the air,
burning through everything in their paths and
leaving charred wounds upon the
soil and vegetation
. 
Ages seemed to pass until the remnants
of the
D
im
O
nes
faded
entirely
and
only blotches of shadow
endured
;
holes in the
earth
that appeared darker than the nothingness
of the sky,
now
ashen
by comparison.

But the
deadly
shadows were
not
defeated.  They changed shape
,
attach
ing
themselves to the trees and animals of the earth.  Everywhere they touched
,
darkness spread like a poison.
  Every
being
they
touched
became
withered
and
distorted
,
perverted from
its
original form
by the hatred of the
D
ark
O
nes
.