Ragnarok: The Fate of Gods (32 page)

             
The airship and its meager survivors lift off into the sky. 

              The segment of plate falls hard, crushing the mostly-empty homes of the second-class citizens.  Masses of debris pile on top of it, spewing a small cloud of smoke into the lower city. 

             
The cloud hits the fleeing transports.  Some are swallowed and lost.  Others are knocked over and begin to roll.  When these stop, soldiers immediately rush out to right the vehicles again. 

             
Only a few escape unharmed.  They make for the gates. 

              “She’s all fueled up and ready, sir,” an attendant informs Micah as he storms toward his ship.  The plate shakes violently with explosions and stress.  The other pilots and attendants have already fled.

             
“Do you have any messages sir?” the attendant asks urgently.  He struggles to keep his footing on the unstable ground.  Micah walks unhindered.  He climbs up the ladder to the seat of his craft and begins strapping himself in, firing up the engines. 

             
Over the roar of the explosions and the burning engines, the attendant presses his lord for information.  “Any orders for the evacuation?” 

             
“Do what you will.  The city is lost.” 

             
Without another word, the cockpit closes and the ship accelerates into the sky. 

              The Supervisor stands at the city’s west gate.  Huge military transports pull at the layers of barriers surrounding the lower city.  After years of keeping monsters out of Nifelheim, they now serve to trap the people inside. 

             
Now, the militia struggles to demolish them faster.  Within minutes, the evacuation transports would try to flood out of the gates, only to get stuck, trying to funnel through the maze of fences and razor wire. 

             
“Pull!” Dumah shouts.  A small fleet of vehicles tug at the barriers. 

Nothing happens.

The wire is planted too deep.  The walls are built too strong.  The only available tools aren’t strong enough.  There is very little equipment available in the lower city. 

“Pull!” he shouts again, frantically.  Again they pull and nothing happens. 

Something explodes.  Dumah is thrown to the ground.  Ropes snap and the pulling vehicles speed to freedom. 

That was too low to be from the plate,
Dumah thinks. He stands.  The explosion has uprooted the razor wire fence and shattered the plexiglass wall.  There is a gaping hole in the barrier. 

In the distance, a pirate ship floats up the Han River. 

Parts of the plate are now exploding violently.  Much of the city has been evacuated, although many people are lost. 
It won’t hold much longer
, Daniel thinks as he runs through the city, carrying a small child.  He shepherds a small group of citizens toward the open cargo bay of the Muselheim. 

Rope ladders hang down and soldiers struggle to pull the citizens up quickly.  The ground shakes.  It begins to sag.  The plate starts to fall beneath their feet. 

Daniel leaps. 

The child cries. 

He grabs a ladder with his free hand. 

The plate collapses. 

In the sky just outside Nifelheim, Jack pushes his engines to full power.  Ariel sits nearby, looking over Zeke in the same bed they used when he was injured by the dragon. 

Jack is quiet.  It makes Ariel worry.  “Are we safe?” she asks.  The ship accelerates.  It moves fast.  Faster than it was meant to move.  She holds tight. 

“
I’m pushing it full-throttle,” he explains.  His voice is grave.  “I’ll probably blow the engines, but we’ll make it to Rome first.  How is . . .” 

His voice trails off as a monitor catches his attention. 

“What?” says Ariel.  “What is it?  Is something wrong?” 

“
We’re being followed.” 

The Supervisor watches from the gates.  He sees the plate sag.  He sees the supports bend.  He hears the grinding, the groaning, and the sounds of strained metal.  The explosions.  The falling buildings. 

And the screaming. 

It is time.  The city is in its death throes.  There is nothing left to do but escape.  He signals to his men to leave.  Evacuation transports shoot towards the enlarged gate, erupting into the open air.  The ground is rough and uneven, but they keep going.  Some get stuck, but others drive on.  Everyone has the same idea. 

Be as far away as they can when it falls.

The sounds rise to a deafening thunder.  The largest section of the plate falls. 

A cloud of debris spews outward from the city. 

Above the dying Nifelheim, Daniel stands on the observation deck of the Muselheim.  He watches each section of the plate fall.  He watches as each section of burning buildings collapses and is lost in the dust.  He sees the Supervisor
’s transports speed away from the deadly cloud. 

All the while, explosions keep ringing from the plate. 

It doesn’t happen all at once.  A large section of the plate falls.  But others stand.  Bent.  Wounded.  Ready to fall, but saving themselves for the right moment.  When they can frighten the survivors, or attack the rescue teams. 

Nifelheim
’s evil is not so easily extinguished. 

“I can’t believe it,” Jack shouts after checking every monitor twice. 

Ariel holds tight in the back.  The ship flies every maneuver possible, trying to shake their pursuer.  She struggles to keep herself still and to guard Zeke as well. 

“What?  What can’t you believe?” she shouts. 

“
It’s the Adramelech.” 

The name sounds familiar.  She heard it once before.  It seems like years ago. 
“Didn’t you say that was the Karellan’s ship?” 

“
Custom built for the man himself,” Jack explains less-than enthusiastically.  “He even had a series of restrictions placed on ship engines.  Didn’t want anyone outrunning him.” 

Ariel was not concerned that they
’d be caught.  “Micah . . .” she said to herself.  Thinking of the person she knew ten years before.  “Is it really you?” 

              A short distance behind Quetzalcoatl, Micah thinks of Ariel.  The cargo ship is fast, but he follows it with ease.  He can’t shoot it down, not with such precious cargo as Zeke. 

             
And Ariel. 

             
All he needs is to wait for them to burn out.  Force them to land. 

             
“It’s been ten years.  I won’t lose you again,” he says quietly.  Then his quarry vanishes from the monitors.  The ship still pushes for freedom in front of him, but the Adramelech doesn’t see it. Before he has time to check for instrument malfunction, a massive gust of wind knocks both ships off balance.

             
Below him, the entire planet begins to shake. 

              “What the hell was that?” screams Jack at the top of his lungs.  All his navigation instruments are dead.  The engines still work, but he’s now flying blind. 

             
“I was hoping you’d know,” Ariel bellows back. 

             
“Sorry.  I’m lost.”  After a moment, he adds, “literally.”  He checks the gauges.  Some fire wildly, erratically.  Others don’t fire at all.  Through the ships controls, he feels a tremor in the air.  The entire planet is shaking.  “Seems like the whole world is going crazy.”

              Far on the other side of the planet, thousands of kilometers away from Rome or Nifelheim or wild civilizations or pirates, something is happening.  On a continent inhabited by malak, something is trying to enter the physical plane of existence.  Black sparks arc across the western edge of the continent.  They flare up far into space.  They explode with energy, shaking the earth. 

             
Then a hole opens. 

             
At first, only for a moment, then it disappears.  But the energy bursts don’t stop.  The storm intensifies.  The hole opens again.  Then it grows. 

             
Something begins to push its way out. 

             
A large dragon emerges, flying into space.  It is the size of a planet, with six wings and black scales.  Its eyes are hollow and black. 

             
Massive thought it is, it is still weak.  It needs energy.  It senses a great source of power nearby.  Its sightless eyes seek it out with ease. 

              In Nifelheim, the survivors of the collapse look up nervously.  The late afternoon sun darkens.  Light vanishes from the sky. 

             
Near Rome, the same thing happens.  Closer to noon, the sky suddenly goes dark.  “Uhh, was there supposed to be an eclipse today,” asks Jack nervously. 

             
Behind them, Micah sees the great monster in the sky.

              The dragon approaches the sun.  It feels the intense heat.  The sun revitalizes it.  Gives it strength.  Its dull, black scales spark with a glimmer of light. 

             
The dragon inhales.  Creating a powerful force in the vacuum of space, it takes the burning gasses of the sun into its own body.  With the unending breath, the star grows smaller and smaller.  The dragon grows larger and larger.  Its scales begin to glow, dark and black.

             
The sun dwindles into nothingness.

              To most who witness the event, the dragon in the sky was a frightening thing.  It was unusual, unnatural.  And it filled them with an unearthly fear. 

             
Micah, on the other hand, knew precisely what he was looking at. 
Samael,
he thought angrily. 
That fool Metatron has summoned the Destroyer prematurely.
He glared at the ship he was following.  It had been ten years.  He didn’t want to lose them for one more minute. 

             
But he knew he could. 

             
They were headed towards the angel’s island.  They would be there for a while.  He could find them later.  The matter with the Destroyer was more pressing.  He needed to speak with Metatron.  And Metatron had been sent to the ethereal plane.  Fortunately, a suitable place for summoning the malak was nearby. 

             
In Rome. 

              “What?  I don’t believe this,” Jack shouted, relieved but worried. 

             
“What is it?  What’s happening now?”  Ariel asked, still nervous. 

             
“The Karellan just stopped following us.”

             
“What?” 

             
“Well, either that or my navigation is still malfunctioning.  But it all seems to be fine now.  He just changed course.  He’s going some other way.”  No longer in fear of being caught, he steadied Quetzalcoatl’s course.  Ariel was able to stand freely, and she ventured away from Zeke and into the cockpit.  “Where is he going?”

             
He checked a few gauges.  “I can’t be sure.  He sped away pretty fast.  But it doesn’t look like there’s much out that way other than Rome.”

             
“Rome . . .” she repeated nervously, trying to figure out why Micah would leave them.  Why he would just give up. 

Why he didn
’t have the decency, after ten years, to capture her. 

             
“Something wrong with that?  We’re free!” 

             
“No.  No it’s fine,” she replied, not fully believing herself.  “How much longer before we’re at Sandalphon’s island?” 

             
“Just a moment.  We’re almost there now.”  At that moment, alarms started ringing in the ship.  Gauges flashed red.  The ship began to make a series of bizarre noises.  “Just in time, too,” Jack added.

             
Moments later, Quetzalcoatl touched down on Isola Delangelo’s darkened landing pad.  The trip had been done in only a few hours’ time.  By all accounts, it should have been
earlier
in the day than when they left Nifelheim. 

             
But instead, it was night. 

             
They wasted no time.  They carried Zeke up the path to the complex and burst into the commons.  Elijah stood there with several of his monks.  All of them snapped to attention at the sight of the unconscious fighter.