Destruction's Aftermath: 5

From the Otherworld, Eve watched. Her plans were going exactly as she wanted. Karin, her first Terran Champion, would be her Avatar on Terra, spreading the Undead as she moved across the land. She had already taught Karin basic summoning, drawing energy from the Otherworld to revive, fuse and modify corpses.

Then, there was her other Champion. A natural kinetic, with a high latent energy. Her soul, or more precisely her psionic self, had wandered into her realm, the Otherworld. This girl... Lucia Valentine Ward. Her brother had apparently created the artificial mages bothering her now. She had been sent to track him down and bring him to her, but when Eve saw the potential of Constantine's world to enhance her own powers, she had sent Valentine to anchor her power there. With luck, she would be able to create enough destruction to open a Portal into the world.

"My Patron! My Patron!"

A high, girlish voice. Valentine Ward had returned?

"VALENTINE. WHY HAVE YOU RETURNED."

"My Patron, there was a... er... overly powerful being there. She is one of the four strongest in the land. And she could have destroyed me with a thought. I had to escape, My Patron."

"CHAMPION LUCIA VALENTINE WARD. I WILL NOT DESTROY YOU FOR INCOMPETENCE. YOU ARE STILL NEEDED. I WILL FIND A WAY INTO THE OTHER WORLD MYSELF."

"Yes, My Patron."

"You are needed now. The four artificial mages your brother created are moving in on our position on Soture, East Solania. You will go down and assist Champion Karin in destroying them and protecting our Chrysalids. We need them for air defense. You will be given this physical body for the mission."

A small, 15-year old female body appeared. It wore a tattered red dress, and had long, dishevelled hair. It looked as if it had remained unwashed for years, with grime on its arms and legs.

"GO! NOW!"

"Yes, My Patron. I will not disappoint you."

-------------

Glossary:

Patron: A godlike being, who rules over a universe or universes. Patrons often go to war with other Patrons to capture their universes by eliminating all of the other Patron's followers. They live in their own private version of the Otherworld. Eve is the Patron of the Undead.

Champion: A servant who works directly for a Patron. Often has supernatural powers.

Mage: Someone with supernatural abilities.

Kinetic: A type of Mage who has psychic powers beyond reality. The other types are Physicals (physical abilities based on reality-altering), Magicals (altering of reality) and Superhumans (all powers within reality).

Destruction's Aftermath: 4

"Black, this is Dexter. Unknown triple-A originates from about 5 klicks from our current location."

"Affirmative. I want you to get there and destroy anything you find."

Fireteam Alpha were on the outskirts of a deserted town, one klick forward from Position 1. They had encountered little or no resistance, except from several scout patrols which were easy dispatched.

"Black, this is Dexter. We have seen no, I repeat NO, signs of enemy activity except for scouts and a Kerberos AFV. What was Echo One's report?"

"Infantry and Destroyers. They should be half a klick from Position 1 now."

"Negative, Black. No sightings of anything else. Something weird happened, though. We captured the AFV's crew, and they were babbling about 'those risen from hell'. They appeared to have hit by some sort of flesh-eating biological weapon and died soon after. Do we have bioweapons deployment?"

"Negative. Be careful."

"Roger."

"Alpha, let's move!"

Fireteam Alpha moved along, with Dax taking point, Lucas and Carnation following behind and Sara bringing up the rear.

They entered the town, and heard nothing but silence. That was wrong. In a war zone, there would be the sound of the Erans' standard marching boots. Which meant that somebody knew they were here.

Lucas spoke.

"Dax, I don't like this. It's... too quiet."

Then, gunfire.

Everybody spun to react. Carnation started her mantra. "I am everywhere, I am nowhere." White flames ignited all over her body, caused by her psionic powers. Dax drew his twin TMP10 5.7mm machine pistols, boxy, crude but effective things, and turned in the direction of the gunfire. Lucas charged his shields with psionic energy and prepared to defend himself. And Sara scampered up a wall, an SR-25 sniper rifle at the ready.

A lone Eran soldier backpedalled out from around a corner. He was firing his EnGrave EN-4 wildly at something out of view. His gun ran out of ammo, and he turned to run. Then, something unexpected happened.

Before he could get away, a long tentacle grabbed him and pulled him backwards, screaming and struggling. A loud crunching sound was heard. Then, the thing pulled itself around the corner.

It resembled nothing so much as a ten-metre long, fat, reddish-brown lizard. It had four glowing yellow eyes, a large head which appeared to be all mouth, and emitted a horrible, repulsive corpselike stench.

"Burn, foul thing!"

Carnation hurled a bolt of white-hot psionic fire at the thing. It just shrugged the flames off and opened its mouth to reveal a mass of tentacles. The tentacles attempted to wrap themselves around Carnation, to squeeze and crush, but she slashed at them with her double sword, driving them back.

Lucas charged the creature, slamming his shields into it. The impact, which would have sent a tank flying, did nothing to the lizard. Lucas attempted to cut at it with the claws on his shields, with no effect. The thing slammed its tail into him and threw him back.

Sara was safe on a wall. She noticed the thing didn't seem to be affected by hits on its body. But what about that vulnerable-looking mass of tentacles in its mouth? She fired a single shot into their midst and was rewarded with a loud cry of pain from the creature. Encouraged, she shot at it again with the same results.

Dax saw the effect the shots were having, and yelled, "Target its mouth! That's where it's weak!"

Carnation hurled fireballs into the thing's mouth. Its tentacles caught fire and it screamed in pain. But it would not give up. It charged at Carnation, but more fireballs forced it to retreat. Screeching in defiance, it plunged headfirst into the ground, diving away from them.

-------------

She watched, amused. Her creatures were not invulnerable. But if she had her way, she would take the whole world, too, besides destroying the man who had ruined her life. Right now, her undead hordes were all over that deserted town. Citizens and former soldiers of her homeland Skolir, which was destroyed by the man now calling himself "Seru". Dead people she had found along her journey. All restored to human condition and consciousness, fiercely loyal to her, and equipped with the weapons of the Skolirin military. Creatures created from dark knowledge given by her own guiding light, "Eve". Like the Tunneler, the large lizard seen by the four newcomers that had wiped out the infantry sent by the pathetic Erans.

This would be perfect.

-------------