Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion (27 page)

“What’s a Titan?”
asked Chase.

“You’ll see soon
enough,” said Argos. “Let’s go. This is bullshit. We just need to destroy it.”

“It must be a
clue, and since you were defeated the last time, you may want to listen to the
clue and see how it applies.”

“Sheer force
always does the job in my experience.”

“Like when I
kicked your ass twice?”

Argos shot him an
evil look.

“You kinda walked
into that one.”

“Perhaps. Shall we
go get what we came for?” said Argos impatiently.

As they advanced
towards the gate, it opened to reveal a long, tall corridor, illuminated by
blue-flamed torches on the walls. After a minute of walking they arrived at
another door. More glyphs were engraved on the right side of the wall.

“Aphroditis?”

“It says:
Point
of no return. If you value your life, turn back now
.”

“Sound advice. Too
bad it’s not an option today,” said Chase

“Let’s go,
already. There’s a beast behind these doors. We just defeat it and you’ll have
your precious Sarah back in your arms in no time.”

“If we survive
this.”

“Neither of us has
any choice but to survive and prevail.”

They stepped
forward and the door disappeared as if it wasn’t there in the first place. They
entered the arena. Its sheer size was impressive. The walls were as tall as
some of the highest skyscrapers on Earth. A thin layer of fog lay on the
ground. Chase saw the four different altars. One by the entrance, one at the
other end of the gigantic arena and two near each of the walls, about halfway
down the length of the arena.

“I think these
things are needed for us to defeat the Titan,” said Chase, pointing towards the
nearest altar, with a yellow, shining sphere of energy hovering over it and with
glowing runes above it.

This was the
place from Aphroditis’ vision, but this time she could read it.

“Blue is air, green
is water, red is fire and yellow is earth.”

“How do we use
them?”

“I have no idea,
but I think you need to figure it out.”

“That’s
nonsense,” shouted Argos. “We do this my way. We just attack the beast full
force.”

“I don’t think that’s
wise.”

The ground
started shaking and a giant door at the other end of the arena opened to reveal
a giant shadow with red, glowing eyes.

“You can’t be
serious!” said Chase.

“Not the right
time to be afraid.”

“Do you see the
size of this . . . thing?”

“I fought it
before, remember?”

“And lost, a fact
you seem to forget.”

“Well, that’s why
you’re here this time around.”

Chase’s heart
rate increased, and while he knew he possessed incredible powers, the sight of
the Titan, in the shadows no less, was enough to freeze his blood.

The Titan took a
couple of steps forward and soon the details emerged. He was humanoid in shape—two
legs, two arms—but his body appeared to be made of stone, the same dark-grey
color as the stones from which the arena had been built.

“How fast is this
thing?”

“Way faster than
it looks.”

“Great.”

“I suggest you
enter rage mode immediately.”

“What? I can’t
just flip a switch!”

“You’d better
hope you can reach this arcane level of yours, fast.”

“Right, we still
have time. It’s still far a—”

But before he
could finish his sentence the eyes of the Titan flashed brightly and it started
running towards them at impossible speed for a being its size. The ground shook
so much that both Argos and Chase lost balance after just a few of the creature’s
steps hit the ground.

Not wasting time
trying to regain their balance, they both launched into the air and flew
towards the Titan.

“We attack him
together. It’s important he doesn’t fixate on either one of us,” said Argos.

They stopped a
good fifty yards from the Titan and created fireballs in their hands.

“Now!”

Both Chase and
Argos sent their attacks in sync: two fireballs, one red, one blue, impacted
with the Titan’s head and created a huge explosion. When the dust settled,
though, nothing had happened. The Titan’s eyes flashed again and two rays of
light fired from them. It took both brothers their top speed to dodge the
incoming attack, missing them only by inches.

“Well, that
didn’t work very well, now did it?” said Chase.

“We have to keep
at it, and you need to power up, Laiyos!”

“I wished you’d
stop calling me by that name.”

“Now is not the
ti—”

But Argos never
finished his sentence. The Titan had smashed him with the back of his hand and
sent him rebounding against the nearest wall.

Chase lost no
time preparing his next wave of attacks. He unleashed a flurry of powerful
fireballs towards the beast’s head. It lost balance and fell on its back, as
everything around them trembled.

A quick look at
Argos revealed he was barely regaining consciousness.

“You’re okay?”
inquired Chase.

“I’ll live. Keep at
it! Don’t worry about me.”

Easy for you
to say
, thought Chase. He hated the fact that his
life was linked to Sarah’s. He didn’t intend to let him die, not today; not
until they had accomplished their objective and he’d rescued Sarah.

As the Titan rose,
it unleashed a deafening growl. Chase launched himself at its head with a
powerful kick. But when it found its target nothing happened except that a
tremendous amount of pain jolted back through Chase’s body.

Ouch! Now that
wasn’t fun at all.

The Titan
unleashed another attack from its eyes and Chase was nearly caught by it. He managed
to dodge it at the last possible moment. He could smell his shirt burning. The Titan
launched itself into the air towards Chase. The speed at which this monstrosity
was coming at him simply defied logic. It took Chase by surprise and, like his
brother before him, he took the Titan’s punch right in the face. The pain
traversing his body was amongst the worst he had ever felt. He crashed to the
ground with tremendous velocity and felt three of his ribs crack.

“This is a
nightmare! How can we defeat such a beast?”

By the time Chase
got to his feet the Titan had already launched a powerful blow towards Argos,
who blocked the attack with both hands extended in front of him and by using
his telekinetic abilities. Red lightning crackled between his hands and that of
the Titan.

“Whenever you
feel like it! I won’t be able to hold him like this for very long.”

Chase
concentrated his energy to the maximum and loaded his fists with radiating blue
light. His aura grew quickly, and soon he was flying towards the Titan’s solar plexus
at max speed, both fists extended in front of him.

The impact
created a powerful shockwave that sent the Titan flying and crashing yards
away.

“Well done.”

“He doesn’t seem
to be hurt by these attacks, though, and we’re burning energy for nothing!”

“No, it’s working.
I can feel it.”

Chase wondered if
Argos was just delusional or if perhaps he could indeed feel something. Chase
certainly couldn’t. Their enemy didn’t register any energy reading as Argos did
during their previous engagements. It felt as it looked: made of stone.

“I’m gonna hit it
with one of my most powerful attacks,” said Argos. “Distract him for me, will
you?”

Chase nodded and
flew towards the Titan, which was already climbing to its feet. When he saw
Chase, it slapped both its hands together. The resulting shockwave hit Chase in
midair and stopped him in his tracks, repelling him backwards as if he was a
mosquito. When he looked back at the Titan, it wasn’t there anymore.

“Behind you! Watch
out, Laiyos!”

Chase spun and
saw a gigantic fist heading towards him. He was just in time to fly upwards and
land on its forearm. Not losing momentum, he ran as fast as he could along it
as he created a fireball in each hand. He was near the biceps of the beast when
it fired another of its ocular death rays. Chase somersaulted to dodge, and
fired both his fireballs in quick succession at the Titan’s neck. It growled.

Finally,
showing some signs of pain
.

But the feeling
of achievement didn’t last long. When it opened its enormous hand, a gigantic, orange
fireball was quickly created in its palm. The sheer size of it was
mind-numbing. The fireball was at least three times Chase’s own height, and it approached
him at impossible speed. All Chase could do was quickly erect a shield in front
of him. But that didn’t suffice to block the incoming attack. It pierced
through as if it was made of glass, and soon Chase was engulfed in fire.

He felt his
clothes melt into his skin for what seemed an eternity. The radiating pain too
strong for him to take, he soon lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was
the ground approaching fast.

*  
*   *

The
Valken
exited hyperspace.

“Any sign of the
Iron
Fire
?” inquired Daniel.

“The ship’s
computer has detected its signature in orbit around the nearest planet. We’re about
two minutes away at sub-light speeds.”

“Punch it then. We
need to get there as fast as possible.”

Daniel exited the
cockpit and went to check on his friends in the next room.

“Have we
arrived?” inquired Fillio.

“Yes, the
Iron
Fire
will soon be in range.”

“What do we do
next?” asked Ryonna.

“I don’t know
yet, but we probably need to be ready to board the ship.”

“Is that wise?”
said Tar’Lock

“I think we’re
way past wise here. We know very well that Argos can kill any one of us in a split
second, so obviously we didn’t come here to play it safe.”

Daniel saw the
expression on Ryonna’s face. “What’s on your mind, Ryonna?”

“Right about now
I was imagining ripping Argos’ heart out of his ribcage.”

“That’s the
spirit, but we may want to leave the heavy lifting to Chase. He’s the only one
of us equipped to go head to head with him. Still, he may need our help, as he
did before on Hellstar or Damocles-3.”

A bright, white
ray of light scanned the room.

“What the hell
was that?” asked Fillio.

“I think we’ve
just been scanned,” said Daniel

The ship started
to rock, clearly under fire.

“Daniel! Get back
here!” shouted Keera from the cockpit.

Daniel rushed
back and jumped into the co-pilot’s chair.

“Who’s firing at
us? The
Iron Fire
?”

“No, there are
defense platforms. They pack a punch as well. I went evasive but there are too
many. We can’t stay here much longer. The shields are already at forty percent.
Two more hits and we’re history.”

“Dammit!”

“Incoming
transmission from the
Iron Fire
.”

It was Aphroditis.
“
Valken
, get out of range. I’ll bring the
Iron Fire
about and you
can board it. The planet’s defenses won’t fire on it, so you’ll be safe on board.”

“Roger that,
Aphroditis. Thanks for your help. Where’s Chase?”

“Both Chase and
Argos are on the surface. They’re fighting a Titan, but things aren’t going so
well on that front either.”

“Why isn’t the
Iron
Fire
being fired upon?”

“Because I’m on board.
These are Olympian weapons.”

“I see, that
explains the scan. See you soon.” Daniel terminated communications.

Soon the
Valken
was out of range. The
Iron Fire
came about and Keera landed the ship in cargo
bay two.

*  
*   *

The party arrived
shortly on the bridge of the
Iron Fire
.

“I’m glad to see
you all, but you shouldn’t have come. There’s nothing you can do to help Chase
and Argos.”

“Help Argos?
Screw Argos, we came for Chase,” said Daniel.

“Be that as it
may, Chase is determined to help Argos achieve his current objective. That’s the
only way to save Sarah.”

“You mentioned a Titan.
What’s that?”

“A gigantic
creature with incredible powers. They’re giant beings that predate the
Olympians. At one point, Titans and Olympians co-existed, but they once
rebelled and were cast away from Olympus. Not many survived what was called the
War of the Gods.”