Chapter 28: World on Fire - Denouement
Static.
The myriad black and white pixels danced back and forth, soundlessly moving in and out with a random, haphazard motion that communicated a hopeless sensation. The monochrome waves cascaded across the field of vision for minutes; but as time went on, the static began to gain color and texture.
Then suddenly, the world came into view.
Regaining consciousness, Scarlet sat bolt upright and nearly headbutted Fox, who was standing over her. She recognized her surroundings as the equatorial Cerinian jungle in the waning hours of the evening, but she had no idea how she had arrived in the area. She recalled hearing Hanson's warning of an aerial attack, but she remembered nothing after that point.
An attempt to recall her immediate past failed when Fox spoke up and exclaimed, "Scarlet! Say something! Are you okay?"
"I think so," she replied, her speech slurred and choppy as her mental processes began to return to her. "What happened?"
"A Cerinian fighter opened fire on our unit. You took most of the damage," Fox answered.
Scarlet lifted her hand and rubbed her forehead, but she recoiled in despair when she realized that the fur and skin on half of her body had been burned off along with an equally significant portion of her catsuit. Most noticeably, her right arm (to her perspective) lacked fur entirely and revealed the metallic skeleton that lay beneath.
Turning her head towards Fox, she asked, "Was it that bad?"
Fox rolled his eyes and replied, "To say it was bad is an understatement. It took three combat technicians and over an hour to bring you back. For a while, I thought I'd seen the last of you."
Scarlet allowed a faint smile to grace her lips and murmured, "Well, looks like you'll have to put up with me for a little while longer. Hopefully that's not a problem for you."
Returning her smile, Fox replied, "Not at all. From the looks of it, the techs also managed to repress the Aparoids in your system a little bit. You were almost completely possessed. Now, it looks like you'll have a bit longer to think for yourself."
"How much longer is a bit longer?"
"I'm not sure," answered Fox. "It could be anywhere from a few hours to a few days unless you're put into cryostasis until a cure can be created."
Scarlet curled her lips in disappointment and groused, "I'm not going to do that. I've seen enough in this life, and I don't need anything more to be satisfied. I'm not allowed to tell you what I saw after I died, Fox; but it changed the way I view things. I'm not worried about dying anymore.
"I understand," Fox mumbled in reply.
Scarlet placed her hands on the soft ground that she sat on and pushed herself up before planting her hands—one with flesh and fur, and one with only metal—on Fox's shoulders and whispering, "I'll understand if you don't want to do this, but if you don't mind, would you be willing to do me a small favor?"
The vixen worked her fingers into Fox's shoulders, bringing a mix of both uneasy and pleasurable emotions into Fox's subconscious. Stuttering like he tended to do when he became nervous, the vulpine asked, "W…What is it, Scarlet? What do you want me to do for you?"
Scarlet smiled in response, and Fox felt a tinge of sadness enter his being as he observed Scarlet's half-ruined face from less than two feet in distance. Still whispering, Scarlet explained, "With the Aparoids trying to take over my body and with the attack on the Temple coming up, this might be the last chance you'll ever have to do this."
"Do what, Scarlet?"
"Kiss me," she replied.
Fox swallowed and flinched in response to the vixen's request. Forcing himself to assume a straight face, he attempted to speak; but the words refused to come. He locked eyes with Scarlet, focusing more on her one eye that still retained its original appearance. Letting out a sigh, he let himself slide forwards, putting his arms around Scarlet's shoulders and pressing his lips against hers with a considerable amount of uncertainty. He expected her to smother him, but she surprised him with a slow, affectionate series of kisses that felt surprisingly real to him despite the vixen's synthetic physical composition.
After a matter of seconds, Scarlet licked Fox's muzzle and pulled away from him, although she draped her arms across the vulpine's back to prevent him from backing too far away. She mentally observed Fox's physically-exhibited emotions in an attempt to understand how he felt and consequently realized that he felt uncertain about expressing his affections for her, most likely because she had almost nothing in common with him apart from a vulpine exterior.
Giving Fox a gentle pat on the back, Scarlet whispered her gratitude. "Thanks, Fox. I really appreciated that."
Then, Scarlet released Fox from her grasp, just before Hanson approached the two and asked, "Is she functioning normally again?"
Fox nodded. "Yes, sir. We can get moving again."
Hanson snorted, "It's about time. We wasted a full hour trying to repair her. Time is definitely not on our side as it is right now. With all due respect to you, Scarlet, I personally think that it was a mistake to stop and work on you instead of pushing forwards."
"Then I'm glad Fox was willing to risk making that mistake," said Scarlet, giving her relative a brief smile.
Hanson shook his head in tense frustration before he stepped into the middle of the forest path that the mercenary unit stood on and addressed the soldiers. "Let's get moving. Ready your weapons and prepare to fire on anything that isn't one of us. We can expect some resistance from the Demiurge's troops, but the main concern is the local wildlife. Keep your eyes open and your wits about you. Based on the intel that I've read about the animals that live in these woods, none of us can afford to let our guard down."
- § -
Several miles ahead of Fox's position, Hyacinth raced through the jungle, following the path that the Demiurge had used to reach the High Temple of Cerinia. During the skirmish in Tivuri, she had noticed a fallen Cerinian vixen and constructed an idea. She knew that it could have been described as a suicide wish, but she knew that it if her plan succeeded, it would have the potential to prevent thousands of unnecessary fatalities. While the battle raged around her, she took the vixen's armor and dressed herself with it. The heavy, black combat armor offered substantial protection from small arms fire, but Hyacinth hated the weight that it placed on her lithe body, which was not used to carrying the extra bulk. In addition, the black helmet that conformed to her face more tightly than she would have liked gave her a strong headache almost immediately after she placed it on her head. However, its gold-tinted visor provided her with the only opportunity she had to disguise herself among the Demiurge's ranks due to her otherwise unusual appearance.
For a weapon, she had claimed the dead vixen's enhanced combat staff, knowing that her standard weapon would not be able to protect her from the marauding creatures of the Cerinian jungle. As the darkness closed in on the forest, the sounds of the creatures reached her ears. Chills raced down her spine, and her hands trembled as her run slowed to a trot. The vixen gripped the dark-colored staff as if it was her lifeline and scanned the edges of the forest path for anything that looked threatening. For the moment, she saw nothing, but her telepathy suggested that she was being both followed and watched by something far larger and more powerful than herself. The haunting full Cerinian moon inched above the tree line, providing the only light that Hyacinth could hope for at the moment. A small, powerful flashlight hung from her armor suit's utility belt, but she dared not use it for fear of giving the creatures of the forest a target to attack.
A limb snapped to her left.
Letting out a gasp, Hyacinth turned her head in the direction of the noise in time to hear an accompanying noise from her right. Her heart rate spiked in response and her mind went numb as the realization of her situation sunk in. Then, a flash of black and yellow erupted from the ferns to her left as an enormous, wolf-like creature leaped towards her. At that moment, Hyacinth's reflexes took over. Throwing up her own feet, she dropped to the ground and landed on her back with an impact that knocked the wind out of her and resulted in her head slamming into the ground. Her head swam and her fear spiked at the knowledge that certain death awaited her; but through her blurred vision, she watched as the attacking creature flew through the air and slammed head-on into an identical animal that had tried to attack her from the right. Instead of turning their attention to the comparatively-small Cerinian vixen, the two lupines snarled in pain and flew into a rage against each other.
The two beasts slashed at one another's flanks and muzzles with their keen claws, producing torrents of blood that dripped onto the dusty path that led to the Cerinian High Temple. The two creatures seemed to ignore Hyacinth as she stood up, readied her staff, and fired an incendiary bolt into the one on the right. The beast fell dead as the fiery emission consumed it, allowing Hyacinth to leap forward and pull herself onto its back as its legs gave out. While the creature on the left writhed in confusion, Hyacinth scaled the dead lupine's steed-like back and used it to propel herself through the air towards the second of the two marauders. The beast glanced up and snarled, but found itself powerless to defend itself from Hyacinth as she thrust her staff downwards into the creature's skull. In a flurry of rage, the beast swung its head to the left and connected with Hyacinth's body, throwing her more than twenty feet down the path.
The vixen crashed to the ground and bounced three times as she skidded along the trail; and for the first time, she felt glad that she had elected to cover herself with a set of combat armor. Still, the impact brought the force of extreme pain on her body. After coming to a stop, she forced herself to stand and found her right leg to be uncooperative. She deduced that it had not been broken, but badly strained. Looking back to the second creature, she watched as it screamed in pain and collapsed next to its counterpart with her staff protruding from its skull.
The vixen directed her ears—which poked through the top of her helmet—to the shrubbery surrounding the path and picked up the distinct sound of approaching footfalls belonging to creatures similar to the ones she had slain. Her temporary sense of relief gave way to a renewed sense of fear as she sprinted towards the second creature and wrenched her staff from its head without bothering to clean the blood from its tip. Feeling a renewed surge of adrenaline, she kicked up her heels and sprinted as quickly as her wounded leg would allow her. She refused to look back until she had covered over two hundred meters. Then, she hazarded a glanced over her shoulder and saw a teeming horde of black and yellow lupines feasting themselves on the corpses of their fallen counterparts.
"I can't afford to have to deal with anything like that again. I got lucky that time," Hyacinth warned herself. "It's only a bit farther. It's only…"
A light broke through the trees ahead of her, revealing the towering, white walls of the Cerinian High Temple. A quarter mile separated her from the building, which cast a somber, haunting light over the valley that it occupied. Gunfire erupted from the ramparts and from the anti-air cannons that had been hastily mounted on the building's roof near the shattered remains of the central dome that marked the location of the High Council Chamber. Whereas glass had formerly covered it, only the wiry metal framework gave the dome any kind of shape now.
Cerinian soldiers—many of them part of the Demiurge's elite—stood on the walls, firing upon the numerous gunships that attempted to approach the building and deliver their troops to the crucial location. For the moment, it seemed that the invading Ichtosian forces had the losing hand around the temple area. While the subjugation of Tivuri proceeded smoothly albeit with many friendly casualties, the attack on the Temple remained largely fruitless. The Demiurge's soldiers held their positions with a resoluteness that bordered on fanaticism. Above her, Hyacinth watched as a heavy Ichtosian dropship accelerated towards the Temple, only to be hit with a hail of laser fire that ignited it and sent it spiraling out of control towards the ground below.
Deciding not to wait any longer, the vixen sprinted out of the forest and into the grassy clearing that surrounded the Temple. Large numbers of Cerinian troops surrounded the building, creating a defensive perimeter that would not be easily broken. Trying to draw as little attention to herself as possible, Hyacinth crept towards the Cerinian ranks, who were busy focusing their fire on the circling Ichtosian attack crafts, which had resorted to hit-and-run attacks to avoid taking fire from the Temple's cannons while still damaging the Cerinian ranks below. She knew that she had to reach the interior of the Temple quickly, as the attacking gunships routinely performed rapid overhead sweeps accompanied by fully automatic cannon fire mixed with the occasional missile or explosive charge. The ploy appeared to be an attempt to force the Cerinians back into the Temple while opening up a place for the dropships to land; and for the moment, it seemed to be working.
Hyacinth entered the Cerinian ranks and began to subtly move towards the Temple itself. Every so often, she took aim at the Ichtosian gunships and fired a series of shots from her staff in an attempt to look convincing, even though none of the Cerinians would have been able to notice anything amiss with her to begin with. Her armor covered every inch of her body except for her ears and tail, which—unlike the rest of her body—she had never shaved.
Pressing through the crowd of defending Cerinians, she gasped as an Ichtosian gunship performed a swift, low pass and fired an explosive into the throng of blue foxes below. The explosion sent numerous Cerinians flying and created a shockwave that struck Hyacinth nearly enough to knock her over. Shrapnel from the blast glanced off her visor, causing her to thank her armor for the second time that night. However, she knew that if she failed to enter the building soon, the odds of her dying would increase with every minute. Ignoring the shouts and confused cries of the Cerinians around her, she navigated her way through the remainder of the ranks until she reached the marble steps leading to the open courtyard outside the Temple itself.
As she set foot onto the first step, the Temple's cannons brought down another Ichtosian attack craft and caused it to crash into the deep jungle nearby. As the ship descended, Hyacinth used the momentary distraction to sprint up the steps and reach the wide, flat courtyard, which had been laid with the same marble that composed the stairs that led up to it. Ahead of her lay the entrance to the Temple interior. She recalled having visited the structure once before in her lifetime; and seeing the large, sturdy side entry doors brought back every memory of her only visit. She had gone to give her regards to her friend Neron before he took his newly appointed seat in the High Council.
Now, on the night of the full moon, she found herself pushing open the heavy, wooden door reminiscent of one from an old, elegant church. Despite the door's age, it made very little noise as she entered the building and then closed the door behind her. As opposed to the tumult outside, the noise level inside the Temple barely registered in her ears. A profound silence seemed to have fallen over the building—a silence that Hyacinth found unnerving. She watched as several of the Demiurge's high-ranking elite soldiers passed in front of her in the enormous, red-carpeted hall that she had stepped into from the outside. Even though their heavy armor masked their emotions to a degree, Hyacinth perceived a sense of concern radiating from them—not so much concern about being defeated, but concern about the contingency plan that the Demiurge had put into place in the event that defeat seemed imminent.
A large, ornate chandelier hung in the center of the expansive chamber, its many lights providing the majority of the room's illumination. On the room's walls hung a variety of different pictures, many of which depicted long-since-deceased Cerinian saints and historical/religious figures who had contributed to the whole of Cerinian culture in a significant way. Hyacinth recognized many of them; and seeing their representations in the sacred building that the Demiurge had usurped and converted into a fortress caused a distinct form of anger to boil inside of her. She felt enraged by the fact that her former friend and companion had done all this not only to the Temple, but to the entire planet as well.
She knew that victory for the Ichtosians would result in the native Cerinians being enslaved and forced to desecrate their own world for the wealth of the imperialists, but at the same time, she feared their defeat as well. The prospect of Gematria terrified her, partially because she was not of the pure Cerinian blood that the program required in order to survive the spread of the virus. Hyacinth had no way of checking with the Cornerian Defense Forces as they began their assault on Regency; and the uncertainty gave way to the fear that they would fail to neutralize Gematria's launch site.
She had risked both life and limb to reach the Temple in order to merely speak with Neron and try to persuade him to desist with the initiation of Gemtria, but she realized that at this stage of the invasion, only one option remained.
She had to kill him before the Ichtosians could. It was a long shot, but Hyacinth realized that executing her former friend herself was the only way that the subjugation or destruction of Cerinia could be averted. Her heart began to pound in her chest as she mulled the thought over in her mind. She felt tears tugging at her eyes as she pictured herself driving her staff through Neron's chest and ending his life. At the same time, terror gripped her body. She knew that Neron possessed far greater mental powers than she did in addition to his High Order combat training, which far exceeded anything that she had learned in her lifetime.
Forcing herself to take deep breaths, the vixen stepped into the middle of the carpeted foyer and made her way down the nearest hall, lit only by candles mounted on the walls. Several doors appeared to both her left and right; and she elected to open one on the right side of the hallway. The engraving on the door's copper plate suggested that the room passed as a restroom—a fitting place for what she intended to do next.
Stepping into the bathroom and closing the door behind her, Hyacinth took stock of her surroundings. The lights were off, meaning that no one had occupied the room in quite some time. Her telepathy failed to detect any living organisms in the area; and after ascertaining that she was alone, she activated her visor's night vision feature and navigated towards the back left corner of the bathroom, where a makeshift shower enclosure stood. Trying to make as little noise as possible, the vixen opened the frosted glass door and stepped into the shower before seating herself against the white stone wall and accessing her armor's communications unit.
Despite the foreign device lacking Fox's contact information, Hyacinth remembered the vulpine's contact information and set to work typing it in. Raising her wrist interface to her lips, she breathed in and prepared to announce her plan to Fox, knowing that it could have been described as little more than a death wish.
In seconds, Fox's voice resounded through her speakers, which played through her helmet to avoid creating any significant outside noise. "Fox here. Who is this?"
Hyacinth forced herself to respond despite the deep-seated fear in her voice. "Fox, this is Hyacinth. I'm inside the Temple."
"What? How did you get there so quickly? Where were you all this time, anyway? We thought you had betrayed us!"
Working to abate Fox's uncertainty, the vixen replied, "I had an idea that I didn't feel comfortable telling you about. I took a set of Cerinian armor and ran ahead of you through the forest. I'm in a bathroom on the first floor right now." She paused for a moment and then continued, "Listen, Fox—the reason I'm calling you is because there's something I have to do here. I have to confront Neron—it's the only way. I know what will happen if you and Felix's allies win this battle. They'll enslave the people of Cerinia and force them to dig up their own beloved homeworld. I cannot allow that to happen. At the same time, if Neron manages to hold you off, he'll retain his rule of Cerinia and keep working to bring Palingenesis into being even if Gematria is thwarted and Regency is neutralized."
"No, Hyacinth," Fox responded with a sober voice, "If this attack fails, the Ichtosians will glass the planet. Everyone on it will die immediately. Also, I just checked on the Regency assault. The Cornerian Defense Forces are having a hell of a time breaching the planet's defenses, but it seems like they have the upper hand."
Hyacinth took a gulp of air. "How far are you from the Temple grounds?"
"An hour, give or take a few minutes. When we get here, the Ichtosian ground forces won't be far behind. If you're going to confront the Demiurge before we get here, you'll have to do it quickly."
"I know," Hyacinth whispered.
"Is something wrong, Hyacinth?" asked Fox.
The vixen lowered her muzzle to her chest and replied, "I don't think I'm going to be alive for much longer. But I have no choice. If I don't stop Neron, it will spell extinction for Cerinia."
"Don't be rash," Fox growled. "If we can prevent the Demiurge from activating the Seismic Rupture Device, I promise you that I'll do everything I can to get you out of here with both your life and your freedom."
Hyacinth let out a whimper and responded, "Thanks Fox, but I can't accept that if it means slavery for the rest of my people. We may be guilty because of our sins, but none of these people deserve what they will get if they are defeated. We have always been free—and I will not allow anyone to take that freedom from us. Not the Demiurge, not the Ichtosians, not even you."
The sound of heavy, uncertain breathing from Fox's end of the line suggested to her that while the vulpine had reservations with her plan, he also agreed with her in at least one way. She had the feeling that he respected her wishes for her people's freedom despite the fact that challenging Neron for said freedom would likely end negatively for her.
After a lengthy pause, Fox murmured, "All right, then. Do what you have to do. Be careful, Hyacinth. I don't know what the Demiurge is capable of, but I do know that you are definitely much better equipped to take him on than I am. Good luck."
With that, Fox ended the transmission, leaving Hyacinth crouched in the pitch black shower enclosure inside the Cerinian High Temple's first floor bathroom. The vixen slowly stood up and took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself, but nothing could bring the slightest sense of comfort to her at the knowledge that she alone had the ability to bring the Demiurge's scheme to a halt. At the same time, her failure would have the result of spelling doom for the Cerinian race, either with their enslavement to the fascist regime responsible for invading the planet, or with their annihilation after the detonation of the Seismic Rupture Device.
As she stepped out of the shower enclosure, she realized that her legs were trembling. Her panicked thoughts refused to relent, even after she took more than ten exaggerated, prolonged breaths in an attempt at calming herself. No matter what she did to bring about a state of internal peace, nothing had any effect.
"I have to do this. If I don't…well, I can't think about what will happen if I do nothing."
Every instinct in her body screamed at her, warning her not to seek out her former friend. Yet, she knew that she had no choice but to do so. She found no way to silence her fears as she pried open the bathroom door and stepped into the dimly-lit hallway that ran underneath a sort of internal bridge that connected two hallways on the building's second story. The High Temple of Cerinia was an enormous, intimidating structure; and the layout of its halls, corridors, and chambers often spurned the ways of logical thinking. The difficulty in finding the Demiurge festered in Hyacinth's mind, adding an element of despair to her already prevailing sensation of fear.
The only positive act she found herself capable of doing was holding onto the hope of her being able to either incapacitate or kill Neron Taero—an act which she did not want to commit—and in turn put an end to the fighting between the offworld forces and the native Cerinians. Even so, the prospect sickened her. Despite his cruel character transformation, she still held out a sliver of hope for the despot, if only because she had once considered him her friend.
Presented with the choice of walking to her left, back into the grand chamber which she had entered into to begin with, and exploring the corridor to her right, she chose the latter of the two options. The warm candlelight in the hall filled the space with a calming atmosphere that effectively masked the fact of the battle roaring outside the Temple walls. Not a single soul stirred in the corridor, which mainly consisted of living quarters and storage rooms for the supply needs of the Temple's residents. Hyacinth did not fear being discovered due to the effectiveness of her disguise, but the time pressure of her task filled her with a silent form of panic that caused her to walk with a stiff, quick gait.
She knew that Neron would likely be holed up in a far more significant area, such as the shell of the High Council's chamber, the priests' quarters, the main chamber on the first floor of the building, or the circular training room on the top level of the building. She struggled to remember the construction details of the Temple after having only visited it once in her life; but at the same time, she recalled that Neron preferred to spend a fair amount of his time meditating in the training room, which often remained unused during certain hours of the day. In this time of crisis, Hyacinth figured that no one apart from him would bother to enter the room where High Order Cerinians trained themselves and each other in the art of their ancient combat techniques.
She knew that she only had one shot at confronting Neron alone. Her best chance required the mechanized fox's presence in the training room. If he could not be found there, she knew that her chances of locating and subduing him would both be against the odds. Her breathing intensified as she reached the end of the corridor and turned to her left, where two silver-plated elevators awaited her. Reaching for the button with an upwards-facing arrow, she pressed it and took a deep breath as the door to the right elevator opened with a soft 'ding'. Forcing her thoughts to the present and the present only, Hyacinth entered the elevator and selected the floor marked '6'—the top level. Little did she knew that as she stepped into the lift, a solitary Cerinian emerged from a nearby room and locked eyes on her.
The elevator balked for a brief moment, then accelerated with a fluidity that masked its rapid speed of ascent. She watched as the red number on the elevator's display increased to match the floor parallel to the lift's position, starting with two and ending with six. Upon nearing the top floor, the elevator slowed to a stop and opened its doors for Hyacinth.
Working to keep her breathing in check, the Cerinian exited the elevator and took stock of her surroundings. The wall in front of her spanned over a thousand feet and ran down the entire length of the hallway which the elevator exited on; and in addition, it sported a large, continuous window that allowed her to view the aerial battle around the Temple from a much closer position. For a number of seconds, she paused and focused her eyes on a distant blob in the distance. At first glance, it appeared small and indistinct, but as the seconds rolled by, she realized that one of the Ichtosian capital ships was bearing down on the Temple. She hadn't heard anything about plans to destroy the Temple; and even if there had been such a plan, Fox surely would have warned her about it in time for her to exit the building.
However, if the purpose of the craft was not to obliterate the center of the Demiurge's power, then what could it have been? The thought occurred to Hyacinth that it may have been dispatched to prevent any possible escape on Neron's part. She knew that he possessed at least one battleship of his own; and the presence of a powerful attack vessel around the Temple grounds would serve as a strong deterrent to an evacuation attempt on the Demiurge's part. The idea seemed sound to her, because if Neron could be prevented from escaping in the event of his army's defeat, the likelihood of him detonating the Seismic Rupture Device would decrease—at least, she hoped that was the case. At the same rate, she feared that his fanaticism for his own cause had twisted his mind enough for him to be able to convince himself to destroy his home planet while still on its surface. At any rate, she realized that the Ichtosian Army was in the process of tying the metaphorical noose around the Demiurge's operation. Very little time remained for her to finish it before it could truly start.
Based on her memory of the Temple's layout, the training room was located in the northeastern wing of the sixth floor—the opposite side of the building in relation to her. She knew that the central rotunda where the High Council met occupied a large portion of the sixth floor's area, although the entrance to the rotunda itself was on the fifth level. With her limited understanding of the building in mind, Hyacinth jogged down the hall until an adjacent hallway appeared on the right. Several armed Cerinians milled about in the corridors, which were illuminated by both wall-mounted lamps and the moonlight coming in through the glass skylights on the ceiling twenty feet above the floor.
Using her mental abilities to their fullest extent, Hyacinth worked to mask her mental signature from the numerous Cerinians, most of whom stood at least four inches taller than her at the very least. Several of them turned their heads to look at Hyacinth, but none of them seemed to have picked up on her identity despite the fact that her heart rate peaked at over ninety beats per minute as she passed through their midst.
After passing through the majority of the Demiurge's soldiers, she turned left at an intersection of hallways that came together in a circular chamber with a triangular-shaped emblem emblazoned on the floor. As opposed to the hall that she had just exited, only three soldiers occupied this hallway. The first soldier—a blue-furred vixen, glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, while the second Cerinian—an oversized male—let out a quiet growl that suggested that proceeding any further was not advisable. Regardless of their reactions to her presence, Hyacinth walked past them and paid them no mind.
The third soldier in the hallway stood next to a portrait of one of the well-regarded Cerinian patriarchs. She stood nearly as tall as the male Cerinian ten feet down the hall from her; and her confident, aggressive countenance pointed to her as being someone of some importance within the Demiurge's ranks. Hyacinth's already-palpitating heart nearly leaped in her chest when she noticed the vixen's General rank insignia emblazoned on her black combat armor; and she came to the verge of fainting when she turned to her and demanded, "What are you doing, soldier?"
Trying to mask the fear in her voice, Hyacinth replied, "I…I left something in the training room earlier and I need to get it."
The vixen curled her lip and growled, "Request denied, soldier. Master has requested that no one disturb him for another ten minutes. You can get whatever it is you need after he leaves the room. Understood?"
The general's unintentional revelation of information confirmed to Hyacinth that Neron had indeed chosen to retire to the training room, if only for a short time. At the end of the hall, she could see the oversized door that marked the entrance to the room where her former friend and greatest enemy rested. She feared earning the reproach of the tall general, but she knew that she had no choice but to disobey her orders, regardless of the cost of doing so.
In response to the General, Hyacinth emphasized, "It's very important. I need it now. Just hold on—I'll only be in there for a very short time." With that, the vixen broke into a run, intent on reaching the training room door before the general could stop her.
"What?! Stop right there, soldier! That's an order!"
Hyacinth could hear the tall general let out a furious growl and begin pursuing her. She knew that with her adversary's advantage in terms of stature, she would catch up in almost no time. The training room door grew closer with every footstep, but so did the sound of the incensed white vixen's boots behind her. Pushing her legs to their limit, Hyacinth reached out and grasped the brushed silver door handle before she turned it, slipped into the training room, and closed the heavy door behind her. To secure herself inside, she turned the lock, effectively preventing the general or her subordinates from entering the room without first procuring a key.
All sound outside the door ceased after Hyacinth perceived a distinct angry huff, which she believed to have come from the general outside. With her position at least temporarily secure, she looked towards the center of the circular room, which sported a glossy, dark gray tile floor. The back of the room had a single curved sheet of glass that granted her a panoramic view of the landscape surrounding the Temple. Several overhead lights had been built into the ceiling, but all of them remained off, with only the Cerinian moonlight providing any kind of illumination to the otherwise dark room.
In the center of the room sat the cloaked, hooded form of the Demiurge, at peace in a meditative slumber. He sat facing the curved window in the back of the room, leaving his back exposed to Hyacinth. She knew that he would awaken at any moment and that if she was to finish him, she needed to do it now. Still, the thought of driving her staff through his back sickened her. She knew that it would be a cowardly, graceless gesture not befitting any Cerinian.
But honor meant nothing now. She knew that he would not relent with Gematria or his Seismic Rupture Device under any normal circumstances. At the same rate, talking to him would be useless. Only one action remained.
Her legs trembled as she stepped onto the polished stone surface that marked the training area. Only twenty feet separated her from her goal now. Her boots made a quiet succession of tapping sounds on the hard ground under her feet, but the faint sound failed to alert the Demiurge to her presence. She inched closer and closer to him; and when only three feet separated him from her, she drew her staff and pulled it back. Then, she took a deep breath and thrust it forward.
Without any warning, the hooded figure seated on the floor in front of her whirled around, extending his black combat staff and parrying her attack. His cloak filled out in the air inside the room and lost its definition, giving him the appearance of a ghost as he regrouped and positioned his feet in a combat stance.
"What are you doing, Hyacinth?" he asked in a calm voice, almost as if her assassination attempt meant nothing to him.
Hyacinth felt tears springing to her eyes as she replied, "Neron, I can't let you keep doing this to Cerinia. Do you realize what will happen now?"
Exhaling and lowering his head, the Demiurge slowly pulled down his hood and revealed his mechanized face and eyes. "Yes, old friend. I am aware of the unfortunate reality—the reality that exists only because you and your pathetic friend dared to oppose me."
"Don't try to pin the blame on me, Neron," Hyacinth growled. "This is happening because you chose to interpret the will of Arkantar in your own terms; and in doing so, you became the wicked man that the sacred texts warned us about in the Elder Sage's final letter to the Cerinian High Council."
"Surely you do not believe that," the Demiurge exclaimed. "I am not evil. I am merely doing this universe a service. I know that the Master Architect will be most pleased even if Cerinia ceases to exist."
Hyacinth's face assumed an aghast expression. "Neron, listen to me! You have to stop this! Unless you do, this entire galaxy will be completely wiped out!"
"Silly vixen," the Demiurge retorted. "That is the idea. Only the pure Cerinian race is capable of justly governing the cosmos. All the mutations and the degrading hybridizations that have damaged our species over the years must be eliminated and returned to their original form. Even if I am forced to destroy this planet, we will live on. We will repopulate on other worlds—worlds that have been wiped clean by Gematria. When our numbers and resources are strong enough, we will return to this place and rebuild Cerinia—except that this time, there will be no more corruption, inbreeding, bickering, or fighting. We will all live at peace for the first time since this universe became corrupted and blemished. Then, all will be well again."
Hyacinth clenched her teeth and took a step back. She looked into his mechanized eyes that somehow managed to possess a living aura and repressed her urge to cry at the state of her former friend and confidante. In a hoarse, quiet whisper of a voice, she gasped, "My friend…what have you become?"
"I am who I always have been—one of the few who dares to make right what no one else has the courage to make right. Now, if you will excuse me, I must leave. The Temple is about to be breached. This version of Cerinia is a lost cause already, but I remain undefeated. I may be going away now, but I promise you this—I will return, even if you do not recognize me when I do."
"You aren't going anywhere, Neron!" Hyacinth snapped, brandishing her staff and blocking his path to the door.
The mechanized vulpine took a deep breath. Then, he muttered, "In that case, I am sorry for what I must do to you. Prepare to die."
With that, he spun his body around and lashed out at Hyacinth with his staff, using the inertia from the twist to maximize the force of the strike. Acting on her reflexes, Hyacinth gripped her staff with both hands and blocked the attack with her weapon held vertically. The force from the Demiurge's strike sent waves of pain up both of her arms as the reverberations traveled through her staff and into her hands.
Before the despot could ready another attack, Hyacinth delivered a punishing front kick to his muzzle, causing him to snarl in rage and stumble backwards. Continuing her attack, she leveled her staff sideways in her hands and twisted it upwards to collide with his jaw. With the fluidity of a fighter who had practiced the Cerinian combat arts for years, she adjusted her grip and whipped the pointed end around to strike her adversary in the already-injured area.
As if his injuries had done nothing to him, the Demiurge sabotaged the attack by grabbing Hyacinth's staff with his left hand mid-attack and placing his right on it as well. His odd parry caught Hyacinth by surprise, causing her to freeze for a moment before she found herself being thrown across the room. The Demiurge used her staff as leverage, which he in turn used to fling her towards the room's left wall. The vixen slammed into the stone surface with a scream accompanied by the 'thud' of her combat armor against the wall. Her staff clattered to the floor next to her as she crawled to her feet and regripped her weapon.
At that moment, she realized that she had badly underestimated Neron's physical strength. She knew that his level of physical fitness was second to none, but there could never have been a way for her to know the extent of his might. Standing up and wincing as a wave of pain shot through her leg, which had collided with the wall before the rest of her body, she realized that for every unit of technique that she could bring to bear against Neron, he had more than twice as much in terms of brute force. Her breathing intensified as the mechanized fox stepped closer to her. His clanking, metallic footsteps rifled through the stillness of the room; and his anger could be felt without the use of telepathy.
Forcing her body to brace itself for another attack, she stepped forward and jabbed her staff forwards. The Demiurge gave his staff a quick twist and knocked her weapon out of harm's way before curling his back leg behind his body and spinning into a back roundhouse kick that would have caught the vixen in the face had she not ducked the attack. She poked her staff forwards once again in retaliation and stabbed at his leg. This time, her attack drew blood. Feeling the pain burning through his leg, the Demiurge bared his teeth and snarled, partially in hatred towards Hyacinth and partly to fight through the searing pain in his right leg.
Burning with anger, the vulpine turned his body and lashed out with a side kick that Hyacinth found herself powerless to block or dodge. The attack struck her in the upper chest with such force that she believed that it had shattered her sternum. She could not remember any point in her life where her body had been in such pain. Even being attacked by quihophs in the Cerinian jungle had nothing on this. The kick sent her flying backwards several feet; and this time, she found standing up to be nearly impossible. Her mind had the will and the resolve to continue fighting for hours, but her body refused to obey. Tears of pain flowed down her cheeks as she pushed herself off the ground and forced herself to stand up.
Although her enemy could have mocked her with words, he remained silent, perhaps in an effort to reinforce the reality of her defeat. All the while, he continued to approach her with his staff held horizontally. With the gash in his leg not appearing to affect him in the least, Hyacinth realized that if she was to have any hope in bringing the duel to an end, she would have to fight dirty. Even though her leg refused to listen to her mind's commands, she stepped forward and brandished her staff. Taking a quick glimpse into Neron's cybernetic eyes, she thought she saw a trace of sympathy in them. However, any traces of the emotion vanished when he swung his staff at Hyacinth's head from her right.
Realizing that her only chance at killing her enemy was at hand, she clutched her staff with both hands and blocked the blow. Then, she used the fraction of a second at her disposal to kick the Demiurge between the legs as hard as she possibly could. The attack accomplished all that she had hoped it would. For a moment, the vulpine stepped backwards and hissed in a futile attempt to dull the pain. With her enemy open for the blow that she had hoped for, Hyacinth pointed her staff at his chest and thrust it forwards.
At that moment, a pain that eclipsed all others shot through her chest. Her staff fell from her hands and crashed to the ground when she looked down and realized that someone had entered the room and rammed a staff through her stomach. Losing the will and ability to stand, she fell to the ground at the Demiurge's feet as the staff was pulled out of her abdomen by her assailant. As her body hit the ground, she knew that she would not survive. Blood poured out of the wound created by the staff; and in less than ten seconds, the blackness of death began to enter her field of vision. She rolled onto her back and looked up in hopes of discovering who had driven the staff through her body and prevented her from putting the Demiurge's plan to an end. She thought it to have been the white-furred general, but the realization that it was someone far dearer to her heart caused her to sob uncontrollably.
Krystal.
The blue vixen looked down at her with a spiteful expression on her face until she realized who it was that she had mortally wounded. At that point, she gasped and fell to her knees next to Hyacinth.
"Hyacinth? Is it you?"
"Krystal—what have you done?" the dying vixen whimpered.
"I'm sorry…I didn't know. But…why were you trying to kill my father?"
Hyacinth choked back a tear and sobbed, "Krystal, your father is the Prophet of Extinction."
Krystal looked up at her father who stood over both of them and silently asked him, "Is that true?"
In response, the Demiurge shook his head and replied, "She does not know what she is talking about. Like many, she cannot understand the scope of my plans and how they are ultimately for our good. I am sorry that you had to kill her to protect me, my daughter. I know how much she meant to you." Kneeling next to Hyacinth, he feathered her ear and whispered, "I'm sorry, Hyacinth. You were a good friend. If you could have understood what I know now, then perhaps things would have turned out differently."
"No," Hyacinth murmured. "It's useless to look to the past, because there's nothing any of us can do to change it. My only regret is that I gave you up for dead when you disappeared eight years ago."
Once again, the Demiurge shook his head before standing up and addressing Krystal. "It pains me to say this, my daughter, but we cannot maintain control of Cerinia anymore. These inferiors are overwhelming us. The only option we have left is to evacuate the planet and go to Regency, where we'll be safe. The Æsir is on the way right now. It will arrive in approximately fifteen minutes to pick us up outside the High Council chamber."
Upon hearing this, Krystal lowered her head to her chest and cried, "Father, please don't use the Seismic Rupture Device. Don't destroy Cerinia—please, father."
The Demiurge put his arms around his daughter and gently replied, "Don't worry, Krystal. I will do no such thing. You have my word on it."
"Thank you."
"You are welcome, my daughter. Now, we must hurry if we are to gather the troops inside the Temple and escape before this building is overrun. We do not have much time left."
With that, the Demiurge stepped towards the door and opened it. Following his lead, Krystal did the same, but not before taking one last forlorn glance at Hyacinth as her life continued to fade away. Before the blue vixen disappeared from her sight forever, Hyacinth locked eyes with her as if to say, "I don't blame you for this." Then, Krystal left the room, abandoning her childhood friend to her fate in the empty training room.
The minutes passed in silence for Hyacinth as she lay on the floor, lacking the strength to move. Her vision blurred due to her blood loss, and in a way, she felt as if she was floating in a semi-temporal void while still perceiving the material world around her. She had no knowledge of how long it had been since Neron and Krystal had exited the training room.
Then, without warning, the sounds of combat reverberated through the floor beneath her.
"Fox and his unit," she mused. "Maybe he'll come for me. No—he shouldn't waste his time. I'm as good as dead already."
Her thoughts had no opportunity to continue, as the door to the training room opened and revealed a cloaked, hooded figure who stepped into the room with hardly a sound. At first, she thought that Neron had returned, but upon closer examination, she realized that the being she had first encountered in the Sacred Garden had come back for another visit.
Turning her head to view him better, she whispered, "Why are you here now?"
The gray-cloaked figure came to her side and knelt next to her. In the stillness of the room, she heard his breathing and felt the resulting drafts of air on her face. When he reached out his hand and unfastened her helmet, she felt a sensation of peace overtaking the pain and sorrow that plagued her mind. Brushing Hyacinth's violet hair, the figure replied, "I am here to console you in your final moments. Your courage does not deserve the pain that you are suffering."
Regardless of her companion's kind words, Hyacinth still felt bitter about failing to bring down the Demiurge. With a tinge of frustration in her voice, she asked, "Why is this happening? Do these people really deserve what is about to happen to them?"
The figure turned aside for a moment and then replied, "If everyone received what they deserved, then no one would be left alive. Every second that we have to live is a gift that no one can ever hope to earn."
Hyacinth sighed and admitted, "You're right. I just don't want to see this world disappear like it never existed to begin with."
"Your concern for your fellow Cerinians is commendable," the gray-cloaked figure stated, giving Hyacinth's hair another brush with his fingers. "But please understand that what lies in store for you far exceeds anything in this frame of reality. This life of yours is but a shadow. It, like all other lives, will come to an end that leads to a new beginning—and this time, there will be no ending. Neron failed to understand that in order to comprehend the true reality of this existence, one cannot think in terms of this present world. In one way or another, it will cease to exist in its present form in due time. All the evil that exists in this day and age will soon come to an end, but for the moment, it is being used to refine the few who have committed themselves to fighting it, even if it costs them their own lives—just as it has cost you yours. I tell you, there is no sacrifice more noble than your own. I promise that it will not be in vain, my dearest Hyacinth." The figure then reached out his hand and asked, "Will you come with me?"
"Yes," Hyacinth whispered, grasping the cloaked acquaintance's hand. The second that her fingers locked with his, her vision began to grow dark as a deep shade of black closed in from the corners of her vision. Fearing the end of her life, she found herself unable to utter a sound. The blackness slowly filled her field of vision until she saw nothing. Then, a faint, distant white light appeared at what she perceived as the end of an imaginary tunnel. At that moment, the world around her shook with a force so violent that even the distant light bounced back and forth. However, it also grew closer and larger with every passing second. The reverberations grew in both length and intensity, but so did the blinding white light. In mere seconds, it filled her vision, pushing out every last vestige of the black that had surrounded her.
Then, Hyacinth gave up her ghost, never to take another breath on Cerinia.
AUTHOR'S NOTE(S):
Just as a reminder, I have a poll up on my profile page regarding the favorite OC out of all the ones that I have created so far. I'm about to close it, so hurry up and vote if you'd like to put your word in on it.
