Aetheral Space-Chapter 445:14.19: A World of Brimstone

"Sorry," Niain smiled. "I don’t want to see the Full Moon rise tonight."

He attacked.

This was not a warning shot, or a strike intended to torment. With the gentlest smile on his face, the man called Niain intended to butcher, to mutilate, to kill. Even if it had been anything else, though, Ruth would have moved just the same. The malevolence that washed over her was just that strong.

Direwolf Set!

Niain raised his hand, fast as lightning, the white sphere of Ahura Mazda already stretching open before his palm. As Ruth rushed forward, ready to block, black Aether hissed -- and a dark blade-and-chain launched forth from the singularity, aimed squarely for Mereloco’s throat.

Sparks flew as Ruth reached him first, deflecting the blow with a slash of her claws.

"Unchained."

Mereloco would not let this man, whoever he was, get another chance like that. Without hesitation, he unleashed a zone of crushing gravity right where the fiend was standing -- and he kept unleashing it, again and again, as the man evaded through the hangar as a black blur. Circular craters appeared in the enemy’s wake, as if he were being pursued by an invisible giant.

"His name is Niain," the clawed woman said, dropping down to the ground next to him. "I don’t know who he is exactly, but he’s nuts."

Niain? The name rang familiar… wasn’t there a tradition in the UAP with the same name? Mereloco was fairly sure he’d crashed -- or rather crushed -- one of those once.

He’d do the same this time.

As the dark blur ran across the wall, closing the distance between them, Mereloco raised a lethal finger.

"Unworthy!"

Pellets of lethal gravity were fired from his finger again and again, each time accompanied by a flash of purple Aether like a gun going off. The enemy weaved across the wall, avoiding the shots, but Mereloco’s efforts were at least slowing him down.

"The rest of you," he grunted, even as he continued firing. "To the ship."

Muzazi’s head snapped up to look at him. "But…"

Mereloco glanced down. "If you don’t make it, everything was pointless." He took a deep breath. "You still need to make it kinder, don’t you?"

A kinder world than this.

The look in Muzazi’s eyes hardened, and he nodded with resolve. Morgan by his side, he made a run for the ship, a protective Radiant already ignited in his hand. Rufus followed after the pair, carrying Aguta and the del Sed’s.

Despite his better will, Muzazi glanced back. He still didn’t quite understand why Mereloco had come to his aid… but for some reason, the notion of leaving him behind felt like acid in his throat.

Ruth Blaine had stopped for a moment to pick Annatrice del Sed back up from the floor -- and as she passed Mereloco, she planted a hand against his arm.

He glared down at her. "What?"

Direwolf Set.

The armour vanished from Ruth’s body -- and manifested over Mereloco’s body instead. It didn’t quite look the same -- stretched and warped by his wide frame, it was more a lion than a wolf -- but it would provide the same benefits in terms of strength and speed. She nodded up at him.

"I’ve fought him before," she said. "Good luck."

Mereloco snorted. "Fine --"

"Oh?" Niain said. "Is it really okay for you to have such a long chat, haha?"

In an instant, Niain had crossed the distance between himself and Mereloco, exercising speed previously unseen. He swiped Angra Mainyu through the air at Mereloco’s head -- and it was only the enhanced agility of the Direwolf Set that let the burly man duck to avoid the blow. Still flying through the air, Niain whipped out a black blade and thrust it towards Ruth’s face --

Unchained.

-- but gravity, suddenly reoriented, pulled him away from her. As he was slowed down for a moment by the reorientation, Ruth finally got a good look at him -- and she understood why his speed had suddenly increased.

Wings.

A pair of black leather wings now protruded from Niain’s back, propelling him through the air like a ricocheting bullet as he avoided Mereloco’s devastating attacks. Ruth focused in on him further as he moved -- it wasn’t that he had wings, she realized. The wings belonged to a spider-like creature clinging to Niain’s back, serving as a biological flight harness.

Ruth was starting to get an idea of this freak’s abilities.

That black hole, Angra Mainyu, completely erased whatever it made contact with. Even infusion didn’t seem to provide too much protection against it. If that thing so much as brushed against a vital spot, you were probably done.

The white hole called Ahura Mazda, on the other hand, seemed to let Niain create weapons and creatures. What was the limit on what he could create? There had to be one, but Ruth couldn’t figure it out.

"Go," Mereloco repeated, his frown deepening as he continued to attack the flickering Niain. "I’ll --"

"Ahura Mazda."

The room was filled with locusts in an instant, the swarm so thick and so fast that it looked for all the world like they were surrounded by a dancing black mist. The roof was slowly opening up to allow the ship to take off -- and more than a few locusts flew up like smoke to taste the night air. With a roar, Mereloco projected a repulsive Unchained around him and Ruth -- keeping the insects at a distance -- but that wasn’t something he’d be able to keep up forever.

Nor would Niain let them.

Using the insects as a smokescreen, Niain moved low, circling the area of Unchained before launching himself right at Ruth’s back with pinpoint infusion. She whirled around, preparing to protect herself and Annatrice with Noblesse, but she knew before the first spark of red Aether flew that it wasn’t fast enough. This was it.

She was about to feel Angra Mainyu’s kiss.

"Bastardborn!"

Or not.

A beam of orange flame lanced out from the boarding ramp, scorching a path though the horde of locusts and slamming right into Niain’s side. For the first time, Ruth heard pain from the pale man -- just a sharp intake of breath, but still enough to be satisfying. He went flying, pushed further by the beam as Rufus continued to unleash it.

Nebula Five marched out of the starship, holding his shield high.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

He’d returned after dropping off his passengers -- and now he continued to unleash the beam against Niain even as it slowly weakened. The residual heat was enough to ignite any of the locusts that came close, leaving Rufus unmolested as he advanced. Hell, Ruth was pretty sure she could see thin trails of smoke coming from the corners of his eyebrows.

"Get moving," he hissed, steam escaping from between his lips.

Ruth didn’t need to be told twice. Adjusting Annatrice’s position in her arms, she ran for the ship, red Aether coursing through her prosthetic legs.

Niain was being pressed against the far wall by Rufus’ beam of heat -- and, a moment later, that effort was joined by Mereloco’s Unchained. As a crater slowly pressed its way into the wall, and Niain’s form was barely visible beneath the orange flames and purple sparks, Ruth finally turned her head away. This was their best chance.

Only…

Bang.

The first shot thudded into Mereloco’s back, slipping between two Direwolf plates and sending him down onto the ground in a moment.

Bang.

The second shot would have blasted Rufus’ head clean off -- if he hadn’t swung around as he saw Mereloco fall. Instead, the bullet slammed into his shield. Ordinarily, that shield could have taken nearly anything an enemy had to offer. But the night had been long, and the night had been hard…

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…and so the shield slipped from Rufus’ weakened grip and flew across the room.

Four-thousand meters away, McCoy calmly reloaded.

Perched on a skyscraper far outside of Grip District, she held a sniper rifle of decaying flesh-and-bone -- nearly three times her size, with the open jaws of a skull serving as the tip of the gun’s barrel. Quite a few demises had gone into this Corpse Construct, but the results had been worth it. Neither of her attacks had been kill shots, true, but they’d sufficed to eliminate the immediate threat to Niain’s life.

Then again… an immediate threat to that man’s life? Such a thing did not exist. The very notion made McCoy wish her lips were still intact -- she’d have used them to smirk.

Until the world broke into pieces, and the pieces softened into sludge, Niain would keep laughing. There wasn’t a thing that could be done about it. October Jones had learnt that a long time ago, and McCoy knew it well.

Ah… she thought, looking down the scope. What a loathsome world we live in.

For the briefest of moments, Niain was free from both Bastardborn and Unchained.

It was enough.

A horde of writhing tentacles lunged out from the pale abyss of Ahura Mazda, seizing hold of Mereloco’s body and hurling him across the room. A moment later, a hail of jagged javelins zoomed out of the white singularity too. Rufus deflected most of them with his fists -- but one slipped through, puncturing his side and pinning him to the wall.

Niain’s black gaze slid over to regard Ruth, who had just reached the boarding ramp, her battered metal feet buzzing with Aether as she pushed them to their limits. She was so close. Damnit, she was so close!

He smiled.

"Ahura Mazda."

I’m dead.

Ruth knew it the same way a cat knew to hide for it’s final night. Animal instinct forced acceptance into her brain. If she wasn’t holding Annatrice, she could have dodged the attack… but she was holding Annatrice, and she couldn’t dodge. In the slowest of slow motions, she could see death coming for her -- the black blade-and-chain, surging through space, aimed right for her heart.

This was it.

Oh God, this was it.

Ruth Blaine blinked --

Slam.

-- but felt no pain.

Instead, as she looked up, she found that a shadow had fallen upon her. More than that… there was a shape before her. In the last second, as fast as lightning, something had come between Ruth and the attack -- intercepting it.

Just like a shield.

Blood ran down Rufus von Frostburn’s chin as he coughed. The blade of Niain’s weapon was protruding from his chest, nearly all the way through. A single glance made it clear this was a fatal wound. Facing away from his enemy, with his arms spread wide, Rufus had taken the blow without a second’s hesitation.

Ruth blinked, feeling the warm blood that had sprayed onto her face.

What? Rufus had taken the killing blow for her? Rufus? But she barely knew him. Hell, she was pretty sure she’d never even spoken to him.

"Why…" she opened her mouth, voice cracking. "Why’d you do that?"

He looked back at her, brow furrowed. "It was going to hit you," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Oh… it is, isn’t it?

Niain pulled the chain free.

Within a second, the life of Rufus von Frostburn ended. He collapsed to the ground, his insides torn out of his back and spread across the floor. Niain looked down at him, bemused. The blade-and-chain retracted into Angra Mainyu and was utterly obliterated.

"That’s so strange, haha," Niain said. "I wasn’t even aiming for him. What was he thinking?"

"Radiant…"

Niain looked up. "Hm?"

"...ALMIGHTY!"

The light slammed into Niain without any concerns for the environment -- if Atoy Muzazi had destroyed the starship in that moment, Ruth sincerely doubted he would care. The Full Moon stood at the top of the boarding ramp, eyes wide with fury, pouring the attack from his sword into the shadow below. Morgan hung over his shoulder, looking equally shocked.

Neither of them had thought things would get so bad while they were starting the take-off sequence, Ruth realized. This wasn’t an enemy they knew.

"That’s pretty bright…" Niain’s strained voice trickled out from the center of the aurora. "...but if it doesn’t hit me, it’s worthless, right?"

He’d partially brought out that black shield of his, holding it in front of him like a mockery of Bastardborn as he pushed back against Radiant Almighty. He was slowly advancing upon the ship -- but not nearly slowly enough. Raising a hand to shield her eyes, Ruth tried to see if there was any way she could get onto the ship before him.

Nothing could be done for Rufus. Ruth’s heart sank, but they needed to take off. If they could just get out of here, this nightmare would be over. It would be over before it claimed any more of them.

As she kicked off once again, running for the ship, she saw Niain raise his hand at her once again in the corner of her vision.

"Ahura --"

"F! A!"

Within a second, Niain disappeared from sight. A shell of purple smoke wrapped around him, holding him in place. Ordinarily, Ruth had no doubt this monster would have been able to break out of Morgan’s prison in an instant, but…

"Unchained!"

…it wasn’t alone.

The fog-cocoon shrank, compressed to its utmost until Niain’s humanoid form could be clearly discerned through it, slowly but steadily being crushed. The sounds of creaking bones -- along with other bizarre popping and clicking noises -- rang throughout the hangar as Mereloco advanced through the darkness, one hand extended, a grim look on his battered face. His eyes flicked over to Muzazi.

"Go!" he roared, holding Niain in place, his voice tempered by Aether.

In his other hand, he held Bastardborn. He hurled it like a frisbee at the trapped Niain, the shield pushed into the smoky mass by the manipulated gravity… and, as more and more force was continually applied to the shield, Ruth saw it begin to glow dangerously. The Fog parted and allowed it entry into the prison, concealing it from sight.

"GO!"

None of them needed to be told a third time. As one, they ran into the ship, and the boarding ramp slowly ascended. Ruth took one last look back at the fallen body of Rufus von Frostburn… but nothing could be done for him now. All she could offer was to make sure his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Ruth turned away -- and a second later, as the ship was plunged into darkness, she felt the rumble of lift-off.

The rumble of Bastardborn came soon after.

A volcano of steel and stone erupted in the center of Grip District…

…and, roused by the explosion, the fallen angel rose from the pit.

Der Freischütz had done its work well. Even as Praetorian One’s body’s innate durability had allowed momentary survival, most of it had been destroyed by Johan Blackbird’s ability.

From the waist down, it was nothing but smoking bones and scorched sinew, organs oozing out of the angel’s open stomach. The right arm was a river of molten fat flowing across the ground, and the left arm twitched and spasmed as it clawed towards the sky. Its head was gone, replaced by a mass of horn-shaped tumours that pushed their way out of its neck-stump.

That it was even still alive was a miracle -- and it was not a miracle that would last.

Within the next two minutes, this messenger of Malkuth would expire. It wasn’t aware of that, of course. It wasn’t truly aware of anything anymore. It was more like a cancer itself now -- spreading through the Hive of Malkuth, so warped and incoherent that it wasn’t even possible to reclaim abilities from it anymore. It let out a low groan that shook the district, like a whale song from hell.

It still had a job to do. Even without thought, instinct guided its hand.

The dot rising up from the building. The ship. It had to destroy it. Why? It did not know, but it had to destroy it.

With a sequence of grotesque clicks, Praetorian One forced its remaining hand into a pointing position and began to gather power. Most of its feathers had been destroyed, and many others had become the inferno that now burnt the district around it, but some had been blasted inside One’s body by the detonation.

19:59:57

It transferred them into its finger, preparing a final shot…

19:59:58

…it followed the distant ship with that finger, and…

19:59:59

Schedule Breaker.

The man called Appointment was always deadly, but the sheer destruction he was capable of increased as the day went on. In the early hours, he was as discriminate as he could be, his Schedule Breaker like raindrops guided by a surgeon. By the end of the night, though? By the last second?

Schedule Breaker became an attack that could not be survived.

A red pillar the size of a skyscraper slammed down onto what was left of Praetorian One -- and for a moment, just for a moment, it was visible as a silhouette within the bloody light. Then, that silhouette scattered -- and when the pillar vanished, not even ashes of its target remained.

Praetorian One had been vaporised.

A final moment of what could have been thought.

The bliss of release. The agony of failure. The yearning for honorable approval.

Red Aether faded, and in the moment before it did, the Queen sent Her messenger off.

AW.

IT BROKE.

Appointment let out a sigh of relief from deep beneath the rubble. It hadn’t been easy hiding while Praetorian One was busy fighting everyone else -- and even now, the flames were beginning to encroach on the safe position he’d found for himself. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he prepared to move out.

It was good for his heart that they’d brought Praetorian One to the brink of death before he’d had to intervene. It wasn’t that he hadn’t expected Schedule Breaker to work… but if it hadn’t, that definitely would have been a problem. Looking up into the sky, he watched the starship disappear from sight.

Ah, he thought. Looks like I won’t be getting any bonuses, but still…

He smirked.

…mission accomplished.