Chapter 4

The sparrow zipped across the valley as Hush held open the throttle as far as it could go. The land around him whipped past at break-neck speed. He slalomed around trees that he was barely able to miss. If he wasn't high on adrenaline and had the light within him he likely would have slammed into one of the trees and torn himself apart.

"If you keep going at this pace you will likely end up killing yourself," said Mitano.

"Well if I do you would just bring me back right?" replied Hush as he whipped around a tree so close the bark peeled.

"Maybe I won't, just to teach you a lesson."

"You're funny." Hush could see the village on the horizon. They were both silent as he approached. Hush could just see movement at the edge of the town. The guards probably saw the plume of dust he was pulling behind him and came out to meet with Mindan.

"I don't like the look of this," said Mitano. Hush pulled to a stop a few hundred feet from the village. There were several guards outside of the village standing about lazily. As Hush stopped the dust that he was pulling in his wake overwhelmed him and swirled around obscuring him from the others.

He stepped off the sparrow and approached as the dust died down. As the dust settled and the guards saw who was stepping off the sparrow they all tensed. Hush could see their fingers move to their triggers. "What are you doing back? How'd you get that sparrow?"
Hush tossed the ghost shell fragments to the guards feet. "Mindan is dead. I killed her."

The guard's face went white. Hush could feel their tension spread. He knew he could drop them all before they could do anything to him and he knew that they knew it too. He strode between the guards into the village. The guards were following close behind and whispering to each other but Hush couldn't make out what they were saying. He made his way to the middle of the village to make the announcement that they were all free but as he turned the corner and saw the town square he froze.

The gallows in the middle of the square had seven bodies hanging and decomposing from the beams. The body in the middle was the woman he had saved and who provided him with food. Right next to her was the guard who helped her out. Hush felt his blood run cold. A sign above the bodies read:

Let them be a lesson that all who

disobey the rule of Mindan will be

punished.

Hush could feel his light begin to bubble and sting beneath his skin. He could feel the fire and lighting and void tearing through his body. The world muted for a moment and all he could hear is the thumping of the footsteps as one of the guards approached him from behind. He felt the air displace as the guard raised his hand. He heard the soft click as the hammer on the guard's revolver racked back. But before he could pull the trigger, Hush let the light out.

He released the light that had built up inside of him. The light burst out in a large yellow, blue, and purple dome from Hush. As the dome passed over the guards their bodies turned instantly to dust and were blasted into nothing. The wave of energy stretched out in all directions for a few hundred feet. Anything that it touched was destroyed instantly. When the wave dissipated buildings were left with a circular portion of the building just gone. The guards were gone. The gallows were gone. And the bodies that hung from the gallows were gone.

Hush could hear more of the guards running towards him from the parts of town that were still standing. The light was still coursing through him; his eyes began to glow with a swirl of yellow, blue, and purple. He began to rise off the ground, hovering a few feet above the ground. A burst could be heard as the guards started firing at him, the bullets disintegrating harmlessly off his shield. The meter in his display barely moved. He allowed himself a half smile and turned toward the gunfire. Five men stood there firing at Hush.

Hush's body had an aura of the same three colors coating him. He waived his hand and a wave of yellow jumped from his hand. Like a whip it cracked across all five. Their bodies began to blacken as they screamed. Their cries of pain could still be heard as they fell to the ground and turned to ash. More rounds started to impact from behind him.

Hush turned and three more guards, two women and a man, were firing at him. He raised his hand toward them and lightning sprang from his fingers straight toward the three. The bolts tore through their bodies and whipped back on themselves coming around on the guards once again, as the bolts came back around, the tips of each turned into the head of a dragon and they bit down on the guards heads before passing through them into the dirt. A loud crack sounded as the dirt exploded into the air. All of this occurred in less than a second.

Hush turned as more gunfire came from his left. He turned to face it and three more guards, two men and a woman, were firing at him while more people ran from him behind them. It was almost cute how these three could think they could cover the others retreat. He raised both of his hands over his head and under the guards running away purple energy formed and launched into the air, catching the individuals escaping. He brought his hands back down and the purple energy retracted back into the dirt, pulling their victims along with it. Nothing was left but the dirt which appeared to be undisturbed.

Hush willed himself closer to the three guards that were shooting as they stood staring behind them at the horror of what they just witnessed. Hush launched closer to the three and stopped inches away. He thrust his hand toward the closest and his arm, coated in purple void energy, pierced straight through. The other two began to run while the one impaled on his arm coughed and begged. Hush pulled him into the air and using his other arm, pulled his body in two.

He threw two halves of the guard's body toward the fleeing two and caused them to stop in their tracks as the two halves landed right in front of them. Hush approached the two and they fell to their knees begging him to spare them. "Did they beg? Did you spare them? I warned you that if you touched them you would pay. And it's time the debt be collected," he said.

"Hush, this isn't right. We should let them go. Let them spread word of what happens when they cross you," Mitano said pleadingly.

"No, they must pay." Hush raised his arms and bolts of lightning in the shape of dragons leapt from his fingers once again. They circled their prey before constricting on them. They quivered as the electricity flooded their bodies, the man's bladder emptied. After a moment of convulsion the two went limp and the dragons dissipated. "The world will know me not from my mercy, but from my wrath," Hush said, his voice echoing many times over as if speaking with multiple voices. "And this is where it starts." The last of his light burst from him in a circle blasting down the buildings and remaining structures that were surrounding him. Everything fell to the ground, buildings were reduced to rubble, grass and crops were laid flat against the ground. Even trees were uprooted and knocked to the ground.

As the light left his body and the burning stopped, Hush dropped a few feet to the ground. He landed but couldn't sustain his weight as his vision swam. His legs buckled as he fell to the ground. "Hush? Hush!" Mitano yelled, a distant voice in a fading world. Hush's vision went black and the world was lost.