Might's Odyssey (The Event Book 2) (21 page)

The cycle and Might plummeted for hundreds of feet before smashing into a hard titanium floor. A deluge of sand poured in after him. Might was barely able to get the hover cycle and himself out of the way before the rain of rock and earth struck the hard floor.

The force of the sand brought the roof down, effectively sealing him in. When the rain stopped, he stood up and examined the hover cycle. Apart from a few dents and scratches, it seemed ok.

Only then did he raise his head to examine his surroundings. To his right was another door. It was bulky and heavy looking. It looked exactly like the elevator door he, Brainwave and Swift went through when they visited the people of the sands.

The familiar sadness surged on his insides as he remembered it but he quickly shook it off. If everything worked as planned, he would soon be joining Swift. In whatever realm or dimension he was in.

The room he stood in seemed like a sort of army style foyer or waiting area. His eyes slowly drifted to the door on his right. There was no other door that he could see.

He made his way towards the door slowly, his eyes drifting around as he looked out for threats. Reaching the door, he punched through, creating a hole large enough to slide his hands through. Pulling his hand back violently, he wrenched the door off and flung it backwards. It hit the ground hard with a loud screech, the grating sound making him grit his teeth.

Looking into the door, he saw it was indeed an elevator. The shaft led so far down that he could not see the bottom of it. Up above was the bottom of the elevator.

He sighed as he walked forward; leaning over and jumped into oblivion. How far he fell he didn’t know. In what seemed like centuries later, he struck a hard surface driving a hole into it, stopping when he was buried to his knees.

Wrenching his feet out of the hole slowly, he made his way to the front. He took it slow because he couldn’t see anything in the dark dusty haze. Lights on the top of his helmet came on, illuminating the room ahead of him.

Everything in the room was covered in a thick layer of dust. He moved forward, turning his head this way and that to see what lay around him.

The room had a large conference table, which appeared to be on the brink of collapse. His first instinct was to walk forward and touch it, but he discarded the thought almost as soon as it came. He remembered what happened in General Holdstatt’s underground base when he tried to touch the shelves. They crumbled into powder. He did not much relish that happening in this instance.

The ground shook as he stepped further into the room. Dust slithered down from the walls revealing the remains of half a dozen flat screens.

These screens were broken and covered with a bit of green mold. So vegetation had grown here once, he thought to himself. From the looks of everything, it did not appear as if anything mechanical or electrical still worked.

To his right lay a twisted pile of metal. It surged up to the roof in a long twirling pattern somewhat like a staircase. The roof was caved in directly above it, and he could see the hard packed earth beyond the twisted metal.

He turned slowly, allowing the light coming from his helmet to sweep over the entire room. There was nothing here. A faint red light coming from the left wall caught his attention.

He walked towards it slowly brushing aside the dirt and thick cobwebs in his path. He ran his palm lingeringly over the wall. His face grew hard with a frown. This wasn’t right.

Pressing his hand against it firmly, thick solid slabs of dirt fell away from the wall revealing the steel behind it. The red beam became brighter sweeping over the room as if it was scanning. Moments later, a section of the wall came away revealing a small safe like chamber behind it.

“Human life detected, fail safe has been deactivated. Lock down protocol disengaged, photon lock disabled.”

Before Might’s shocked eyes, a bigger section of the wall came away revealing a large pane of reinforced glass with a tiny couch in the center of it. On the couch lay the last keycard.

He rushed forward with eager excitement his palms slamming into the warm glass. It felt harder than steel. He was on the verge of smashing his fist into it when he noticed the small safe like chamber that opened first.

Walking sideways, he leaned down and peered into it. A small key lay in the center of it. Picking it up, he examined it carefully. A tiny button lay in the center of it. He took a deep breath and pressed the button.

There was a whoosh and a section of the glass chamber the keycard was held in, came away. Hurrying back, he reached into the chamber and retrieved the last keycard.

Removing the other two from a pouch on the side of his battle suit, he held them close together. The ends of the one he just brought out of the chamber liquefied and fused to the side of the other two.

Several clicks and clacks later, the three halves realigned themselves forming a bigger looking tablet computer with a neon red light blinking from the top.

Nothing happened for about a minute and then everything started to shake. The walls around him began to shift and realign. The roof parted directly over his head and a deluge of sand, steel and rock plummeted.

He ducked, leaping to one side, rolling over as several tons of sand, dissolved concrete and steel rained down around him. After a long while the rain of sand ceased and he stood, looking up at the space in the roof, through which he could now see the gloomy skies several hundred feet above.

He raised the tablet in his right hand up to look at it and was surprised to see that a red dot was flashing on the surface. The flashing dot he discovered signaled his location. But there was another blue dot heading in the direction of the base at great speeds. His face became worried. Could that be a new threat?

The flashing dot flashed faster and an annoying beeping burst from the tablet. What in the world is wrong with this thing? He thought irritably. A few seconds later, he knew what was wrong.

Giant words suddenly appeared on the screen of the tablet. His eyes widened as he read them.

“Darwin is activated and en-route. Get to the surface as quickly as you can.”

His eyes narrowed in puzzlement. Get to the surface? What the hell for? In case you haven’t noticed there is an army outside just waiting to destroy me.

“Get to the surface___ NOW!”

Eleyon’s voice was harsh and commanding, it brooked no argument. It was time to obey.

He crouched low, preparing to leap up at the ceiling when he noticed the red button on the left side of his armor. He remembered how a button activated the rockets in the boots of his hazmat suit when he wanted to get out of the crater at Rikley’s communication base in the dark sector.

He pushed the button and the jets in his boots activated lifting him through the hole in the roof and heading for the surface at breakneck speeds.

Immediately he reached the surface, he pressed the button again and the jets in the boots instantly shut down. He fell for several feet hitting the ground hard some seconds later.

The army of the ether-tome milled ten miles away. They turned when the thump of his impact with the ground rang out. The Higuan giants were the first to attack.

Five of them took one long bound and reached his side. It now became a competition to see who would crush him with their feet first.

He ducked this way and that, narrowly escaping being crushed several times. Suddenly they stopped stamping, all of them becoming still.

He paused looking up at them. The whole army’s eyes and attention were fixed on something he could not see. The dríe-gons hovered in mid air also staring at this unseen spectacle.

Deciding not to question his good fortune, Might took off running eastward. The ether-tomes minions paid him no mind. A blinding pulse shook the earth for hundreds of miles a few seconds later. This pulse flung him almost two hundred feet forward.

He hit the ground hard, rolling over a dozen times before he came to a halt. His entire body felt beaten and sore. Sitting up, he saw that the surface of his armor was red hot and smoking.

He turned facing the army behind. What he saw made his mouth open wide in shock. The earth from horizon to horizon was a scorched wasteland.

The Higuan giants, the dríe-gons, darklings were all gone. Nothing remained save burnt and smoking carcasses. Rising to his feet, he examined the landscape more closely.

Something approached from the western horizon. It was a giant of a thing. The massive arms that generated the deflective beams seemed to part the clouds.

Might had no words for what he was seeing. At some points it appeared to be a robot, at other times, a giant disc shaped satellite. A large dome structure five miles high and ten miles wide sat on top of the entire mass like a head and in the center of this structure were two globe shaped green lights shinning down on the earth like eyes.

“DARWIN__” The name burst from Might’s lips in a shallow whisper.

The term massive did not even begin to describe it. It was huge, towering over two hundred feet above ground and surrounded by a force field, which looked so strong and formidable that Might sincerely doubted whether anything could penetrate it. It moved forward on twenty-five foot tall limbs, four of them, made of galvanized steel, so thick that its width could cover the entire width of a football field.

The hulk like torso seemed to be twice the width of mount Karnack and kept exuding short flaming bursts of lightening which lit up the skies around it. Who could build something like this? Something of this scale and power. His mind could not comprehend it.

“My name is Darwin___”
The thing spat out. The mechanical voice was so loud and powerful that the earth shook as if shaken by a 6.5 Richter quake.

“I have only one protocol, and my protocol is to preserve life. Any force, any being, sentient or earthly that threatens human life will meet with the full weight of my power

“humanity must be preserved and I was created to ensure that the species survives__”

Might continued to stare at the creature whose green eyes drifted over the earth in long measured sweeps as if it was still scanning for threats.

A loud burst of thunder erupted from the north at that moment. Might whirled around, his eyes narrowing when he saw the cloud of darkness coming from the horizon.

“It has started__ the ether-tome is coming.”

“But that’s ok isn’t it? Darwin will protect me won’t he?”

Eleyon did not respond. The darkness hurtled towards him and Darwin at breakneck speeds. Red explosions erupted in the center of it. Even with the distance separating him and the creature, Might could feel the intense heat coming from its core.

The heads up display in his helmet came up. The radiation level the darkness was emitting was three hundred times greater than any nuclear explosion.

“You have to go Might__”

“Go where? I have nowhere to go. You said if I activated Darwin I could go home.”

Darwin turned at that instant and moved to confront the ether-tome. The deflector beams on its arms were powering up. The arms turned bright red when they became fully charged. It fired a few seconds later.

Twin bolts of energy surged out and streaked towards the ether-tome. The force of the explosion when it came could not be measured or quantified.

The earth for three hundred miles ripped apart and imploded. Magma from its core burst out of the surface, consuming the oncoming darkness in it and dragging it down into the depths where it disappeared from view.

Might found himself flying, he sailed for miles. The instruments and equipment in his suit shut down completely as the fallout carried him three times the distance he had traveled from the tall sand dune, before he hit the ground and knew no more.

The voice in his head seemed to be coming from far away. He could not help wishing it would just fade away forever and leave him to rest. But of course it didn’t. It was insistent; calling his name out like a mantra
. Might. Might, might___

He wanted to yell out. Scream at it to be silent, so he could rest and have peace. All he wanted now was peace. Nothing else mattered, not even his life.

“
MIGGHHHHHTHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!”

The words were a roar in his head, only then did he open his eyes. His battle armor was in tatters, the helmet ripped and twisted with the glass gone.

He took a wary gulp of air and heaved a sigh of relief. It was not irradiated, he could breathe. Sitting up, he was horrified by the level of destruction around him.

The once smooth earth was now a collection of deep chasms and fissures with bubbling bursts of magma erupting on the surface every couple of minutes.

Darwin and the ether-tome were still battling it out, with neither of them able to gain an advantage over each other. The ground shook with their war and every couple of seconds the rips in the earth grew longer and the chasms deeper.

He shifted to his left and gasped, only just noticing the deep abyss a foot away from his legs. The earth around it was crumbling, in a few more seconds he would fall down into the red-hot glow many miles below.

Eleyon was right to yell. He leapt to his feet and tore to his left taking ten-foot bounds. The crumbling earth raced after him as if they were in a sort of race to see who would emerge victorious.

Tearing off the battered helmet so he could see better, he leapt into the air as a five mile section of the earth crumbled into the abyss. Soaring high in the sky, he landed about ten miles away, striking the ground hard and rolling half a dozen times before he became still.

“Look to the heavens.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to yell out ‘Am I not allowed to take a breather?’ when he saw the shinning lights coming from the heavens. They looked like shooting stars headed for a collision with earth.

The lights grew brighter as they approached the earth, becoming searing fireballs that lit everywhere with a shimmering white light. A heartbeat later, three of them hit.

There was another great explosion, so bright that Might had to turn to shield his eyes from the glare. The blinding lights quickly faded and disappeared, instantly replaced by three ten foot tall white and gold beings with flaming swords in their hands and six-foot long wings on their backs.

“Who are they?” Might spluttered, staggered by all that was happening around him.

“They are the world enders. They have come to bring a close to the chapter that is Nephilim, as well as destroy the ether-tome and his minions for ever.”

“Why?” The question was shouted out in a screech.

“No time. Try and stay alive long enough for Darwin to make his move.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Eleyon did not speak again.

The world Enders rose to their full height of ten feet and before Might’s horrified eyes they grew and grew until they were the stature of Darwin and the ether-tome.

Roaring in fury, they attacked. The sound of their roars caused a pain deep within Might’s soul. He fell in a crumpled heap clutching his chest as if he was having a heart attack.

Darwin’s repulser beams drove the first attacker back. The second fell upon the ether-tome darkness the sword in its hand cleaving great chunks off it.

These chunks instantly dried up and faded into smoke. They were killing it.

The third turned and faced Might, his bright blue eyes turning red. Might’s face fell as he turned to run. The ground behind him exploded in fiery red particles of sand and fire.

The force of the explosion threw him several feet forward where he landed with a loud thump scattering sand to the four winds. Running for several moments, he took to the air again. Something large and heavy smashed into him from the front bringing him down with a loud crash.

The golden world ender stood before him. It had shrunk itself to a smaller size again. Now it was only a foot taller than Might. It sprouted before Might’s eyes becoming massive once again, its head disappearing into the thick grey clouds.

A huge foot came smashing down a few seconds later slamming into Might’s torso with a loud roar, driving his body several feet into the ground.

It repeated the action five times before reaching down and grabbing Might, flinging him in the opposite direction. Before he struck ground however, it appeared beside him in midair and drove a hard blow into his torso.

He plummeted sideways, sailing through the air for another twelve feet, appearing beside him once again, the ender slammed a hard fist into his back flinging him in the opposite direction. It did this four more times before it allowed him to hit ground.

Groaning in pain, Might struggled to his knees, pausing when he saw that the creature was beside him. It had grown becoming massive again, raising its foot as it prepared to crush him with it.

Might closed his eyes bracing himself for the pain he knew would soon follow. The pain never came. Something exploded above him. Opening one eye he was shocked to discover that the world ender had disappeared.

A faint plume of smoke many miles away caught his eye. He leaned forward trying to get a closer look when one of Darwin’s galvanized steel legs thumped down several feet away from his body.

He looked up, gasping when he saw Darwin’s deflector beams charging up to fire. The beam on one arm pointed to the ender in front while the one on the other arm pointed at the two Enders behind. Both beams fired at once.

The smoke plume in front turned to a massive fireball, which threw sand, dust, rock and smoke in a twenty-mile radius. Might ducked as the fallout swept over him in strong staggering waves. What remained of his suit faded into nothing but ash flakes. He was now almost completely naked.

Darwin reared up, a section of his chest sliding open exposing the energy core beneath. This core began to power up. Might’s eyes widened. Was it preparing to fire it? Before he could dwell on that any further, Darwin roared out beginning to speak.

“I am Darwin!!! My protocol is to preserve life. Maxium core cannon has been activated, threat must be destroyed. No human life will be lost.”

The cannon charged to full capacity in seconds and fired. The resulting explosion made an already insane world crazier still.

Might’s eyes widened as the fireball seared his way, closing his eyes he braced himself for death, which he thought, was imminent. Nothing happened. He opened his eyes only just realizing that he had even closed them.

Darwin had generated a force field, which shielded him and itself from the explosion. The top half of its body whirled around and the core fired again, this time in the opposite direction. The world Enders behind disappeared in a fiery cloud of fire and smoke.

Might raised his head looking in shock at a light portal a mile in front.

“That is the way home__”

His eyes widened. A sizzling explosion rang out above. Glancing backwards as he leaped to his feet, he was shocked to see that one of the world Ender’s had its sword buried in Darwin’s core.

The shield around him and Darwin fizzled out. That was his cue. Breaking into a run, he raced to the light portal as fast as his feet could carry him.

More lights streaked from the heavens and hit the earth causing mighty explosions. There were now almost fifteen world Enders. They raised their flaming swords and fired long bursts of golden fire into the core of the earth.

The ground and the whole of Nephilim began to tremble and shake. The resulting tremors were felt as far as Gethsemane, Absalom and even Sulphurlock. The world Enders were bringing a close to what remained of Nephilim.

Five paces away from the portal something slammed down on him, crushing him to the earth. He groaned as he struggled to push the debilitating weight off his body.

A breathless gasp burst from his lips as the pressure lifted. A world Ender’s huge fist descended once again smashing him into the earth. It repeated this several times until his body was a bleeding pulpy mass.

Might lost hope then, as he realized that was incapable of fighting again. He had tried. Let Nephilim have him. He did not have the strength to continue fighting.

The world Ender brought out its sword and raised it high above its head. Might knew that when that sword hit, his body would be eviscerated. He debated whether to close his eyes or not. Deciding on the latter, he waited for the killing blow.

The sword descended and everything Might remembered flashed before his eyes. So he was going to die. He wasn’t frightened by the thought. The only emotion he felt was sadness that he had not succeeded in reuniting with Swift, wherever he was.

The sword descended to about a foot away from his chest when it struck an invisible shield of energy. Might’s eyes widened in shock. The world ender tried again and got the same result.

A second later, a powerful force swept out of the portal and flung the world ender backwards where it smashed into what remained of Darwin and the other Enders.

Might leaped to his feet shocked to see the flaming figure with greenish red eyes floating a foot in front of the portal. It was human shaped and had its hands pointed forward as if it was shooting some force from them.

“You have to go Might__”

So the thing could speak. Wonders they say would never cease. A frown roughened his brow. He could not decide whether he heard the words in his head or his ears. He stepped forward slowly, examining the human shape with wonder.

“Might you have to go__”

That brought him out of his reverie and he raced for the portal. Just before he stepped into it, he turned once more to look at the creature.

“Thank you__” He murmured.

“Go__ tell Swift he has to find me__”

That statement made him freeze in shock. “Brainwave__” He gasped.

Her eyes became flaming red pools and she fired a force at him, which swept him into the portal. The last thing he saw was a world ender slashing down at her with a flaming sword. She vanished before the sword hit and everything became blinding white.