Chapter Seven: Unhallowed

I tried weakly to rise, but Mariner slammed his foot down on my back, stifling my efforts. "So falls the great and mighty Visitor," he sneered from above me.

Where was NiGHTS to save me? I looked quickly around from her, but in my cone of vision I did not see her. This concerned me greatly, as I felt a sudden and urgent need of her abilities. Actually, considering my position at the time, I gladly would take whatever help came my way!

Jackle hopped down off the altar and began floating around it. "Does Master Wizeman soon approach?" he wondered aloud, pulling out several cards. He glimpsed at them, reached some conclusion from them, and then put them away. "Indeed, steadily does he grow nearer…"

"We've just got to keep this little maggot under control," Mariner said staunchly. "If he tries anything funny, I'm shooting him again!"

Jackle cast Mariner a bemused expression. "We have orders not to kill him," the orange Maren responded, vaguely questioning in tone. "Why do you… try your luck?"

Mariner laughed coldly. "Try my luck? There's no luck involved. I'd just tell Wizeman the Awakeners got him before I did."

"That would be rather irresponsible of you," Jackle said distantly.

The gun-toting Maren snorted, his foot pressing harder between the blades of my shoulders. "Master Wizeman says that Visitors are abhorrent to him," he said with a snarl. "Why would he say for them not to die if that is all he wants in the end?"

Jackle drew another handful of cards, fiddling with them in his clawed grasp. "Hmm. Indeed."

I was beginning to come to grips with the situation I had at hand. I had been very clearly shot through by Mariner, and yet the only pain I felt was from his foot. Beyond my initial swoon I did not feel very effected by shock; come to think of it, I was feeling better by the moment. I twisted my head, looking for a pool of blood to mark my injury, or my own innards splattered on the marble. Seeing none of these made me rather suspicious. Perhaps I had escaped injury, through some diabolical Creator power of mine. Perhaps it was time for my return.

Mariner was rather occupied yelling in his usual disgruntled tone at Jackle. "You weren't doing so good when I dropped in here either, you know! I didn't see YOU trying to suppress the little cretin yourself!"

The card-carrying Nightmaren's response was, as usual, aloof: "So you didn't. Indeed."

Mariner bristled, aggravated by Jackle's indirect answers. He rose up into the air to launch another barrage of shouted complaints, and in that moment I reacted. I flipped over onto my back, summoned one of my signature stick grenades, and pulling the pin with my opposite hand, tossed the lethal bomb into the air. The tumbling explosive, and resulting report, flung Mariner away from me, allowing me to remount my feet and confront him. I pulled my flipaxe up off my belt, flicked it open to its full four-foot length, and with a squeeze of the handle activated its green plasma blade. The axe vibrated, thrumming reassuringly in my hand as I spread it out backwards, transitioning into my dueling stance.

The outburst of violence was immediate. Mariner let loose a roar and, raising both his pistol and shotgun, began firing wildly in my direction. I outstretched my hand and projected a wall of Power, harmlessly deflecting his projectiles. I then stepped forwards and swung at him with my axe; he was just fast enough to duck out of range once, twice, and three times as I hacked and slashed at him. Right before I cleaved him in half, he teleported away with a rattling crack, my axe passing through only a cloud of gunsmoke.

Taking the opportunity to switch tactics, I outstretched a hand, tugging at my pistols where they lay on the ground. The weapons cartwheeled into the air, leaping towards me. I nosed my plasma axe into the marble floor and seized both weapons, pivoting back around, in the direction I presumed (correctly) Mariner had moved. Sidestepping to avoid a burst of shotgun pellets and hot slugs, I returned fire with a torrent of glowering blasts, the heavy pistols singing as they drained their energy cells. Clamping both triggers into full automatic, I was able to suppress Mariner, forcing him to stop firing and spiral haphazardly backwards, nimbly dodging my shots.

A razor-sharp Tarot card knifed my face, brushing my cheek. As the world around me suddenly took the appearance of an Impressionist painting, I heard my glasses clatter to the ground some distance away. I turned in the direction the card had come from, only to receive another, this one slashing my shoulder. As I tensed my arm against the burn, I noted the fuzzy form which I presumed to be Jackle, stretching an arm to throw another card. I fired wildly at him, sending a sufficient amount of plasma to prevent him from doing any harm.

I heard the harsh clack of a magazine being fitted to a rifle from behind me; Mariner was readying another attack. I grimaced. One high-level Nightmaren was bad enough, but two? If I wasn't Narrator, and therefore invincible, I might have cause for concern!

I had to cut down on numbers. I holstered both of my pistols and conjured a pair of stick grenades, tossing them sideways. However, I had slightly misjudged my aim, and when the two explosives detonated, the dust cloud produced didn't adequately cover my withdrawal. I took three steps and felt something heavy ram me from the rear. I overbalanced and collapsed, catching myself with both hands. I got halfway back up, turned to see Mariner lunging with another kick. The blow connected, the impact once again knocking me prone.

The soldier-Maren cackled, resting his assault rifle against his shoulder. "What? Can't fight someone bigger than you, Visitor?"

I told him to go play in traffic, a comment by which he was not amused. Mariner brought his rifle to his shoulder, aiming it at me. I rapidly set to thinking what ridiculous gimmick might allow me to escape this most vexing situation.

With a ripple as though passing through a pool of water, my problem solved itself before I was quite done weighing my alternatives. NiGHTS reappeared, zipping by as a purple bolt. Mariner snarled and opened fire; barely outmaneuvering him, NiGHTS twirled a circle around me. I saw her streamer flash…

I landed solidly on the ground without leaving it, in that moment severely disoriented. It took me a moment to recognize that I was still in the same room as before, just several feet away. I had landed on my feet, however awkwardly; a fortunate fact as I had sudden good cause to move as Mariner whirled around, hosing me with high-velocity rifle rounds.

With an audible yelp, I leapt backwards, ducking behind the nearest large, wooden, rigid structure, the cathedral's bulky tabernacle. I would have likely found some offense in the box's resulting fate were I not so obsessed with saving my own sorry posterior, but by the time the thought occurred to me not to put any more religious artifacts on the line for my sake the sacred box was already shuddering as it soaked up bullets. The rounds shredded the tabernacle, clawing its thick wooden skin, collapsing its roof, and blowing the tabernacle door clear off its hinges, scattering items of ceremony across the floor. Through some apparent miracle, no rounds escaped from the box's far side, and I escaped injury.

Mariner suddenly ceased firing as NiGHTS lunged for him. With a very audible thwack, the violet jester kicked him into the air, and dropping his rifle he crashed headlong into a pillar a few yards from me. The gun-Maren was only irritated by this, and bounced back into the air, pulling his machinegun out of hammer space.

Before he could use the weapon, I resummoned my axe and hurled it at him. Mariner recoiled and thrust out his MG to stop it; the plasma axe passed neatly through the weapon, cleaving it asunder, and buried its blade in the Maren's chest. Mariner convulsed and fell from the air to the ground, my axe dislodging and clattering to the ground some distance away, still glowering fluorescent green.

I turned back towards Jackle; the card-Maren was much occupied fighting NiGHTS, and judging by his constant weaving and ducking, faring none too well. I moved towards the altar, where the two were engaged.

Mariner's anguished roar recalled my attention. I swiveled back around to see Mariner back in the air, pulling up his Uzi from his side. Summoning a wad of Power to my hand, I made a constricting motion, injecting it into his gun; the Uzi crumbled up like a sheet of paper, falling useless from Mariner's hand.

I heard Jackle screech from behind me; I swiveled around to investigate, to see NiGHTS twirl around the card-reader, enveloping him in a Paraloop. I turned back to find Mariner on the tail end of a spine-snapping windup punch. I ducked, evading one attack, but the wounded Maren caught me in the stomach with one of his knees, knocking me off my feet. He thrust out his foot to strike my chest, but I seized his leg and reeled him backwards, flinging him away from me. I hopped back up to my feet and, seeing him about-face and return, thrust out my open hands, activating a Power shield. The emerald sphere flashed around me like a cage of ethereal bars; Mariner struck it with his foot, only to be jolted with a massive dose of Power that hurled him backwards.

I stepped towards him, to finish him off, but Jackle's cape flashed in front of me as the Maren materialized directly in my path. His incorporeal eyes and floating features startled me, and his Spherin-hands seized the front of my coat, tearing into my chest. Before he could start to draw my Ideya from me, I recovered from my surprise and flashed my shield again, stunning him with a blast of Power. I tried to shove him away, but my hands passed right through his nonexistent body; Jackle cackled wickedly, and knocked me backwards, shoving me onto the stairs leading to the cathedral's altar.

I reached to my sides only to realize I was missing my sidearms; they had been dislodged in all the ups and downs of my close-in fight with Mariner. As Jackle lunged at me again, I decided a change in tactics was in order once more. Drawing from my bottomless pool of Power, I thrust forward my hand, generating a tremendous gust of wind. The blast hurled Jackle backwards into the pews, smashing through two entire rows of the wooden seats.

NiGHTS came up behind me and, beckoning wildly, exclaimed a warning. I then noticed Mariner, still not out of the action, leveling a rocket launcher in my direction. As the cathedral boomed with the terrible echo of the launcher's backblast, I leapt for safety, praying I would escape the rocket's blast.