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The energetic barrier that kept Giria protected for countless ages was the first to fall by the Farraleese armada. The sea ships converted into plated land vehicles equipped with cannons that could hurl balls of fire against the barrier, now turned to blast the Black Walls. The airship loomed menacingly over the walls and outskirts of the city, using terror as its weapon. High above on the ship’s wide balcony, Von-wratha gripped the copper railing, intently watching the carnage below.
She quivered with devious delight as she watched Girian civilians scream and scamper from their impending doom. They were like sinful ants rushing in circles from the boot that was about to crush their nest. Von-wratha soaked in their fear. Her sickly red aura bloomed with each wave of her victims’ terror. But there was something more that she hadn’t sensed in decades. Even on the outskirts of the walls, she felt waves of energy piercing through her skin, heating her flesh and exciting her mind. Her eyes drifted to the twinkling peak of the Spire; the copper serpent fangs glittered under the dual sun’s rays. The oracle's literal seat of power.
She turned to Xolrin and his sycophant pet, Irulan. Their attention was tuned to the siege below. Unlike Von-wratha, they kept their distance from the railing – and from her.
“Isn’t it wonderful, Xolrin? Watching the destructive power of your machines lay waste to countless primitives you’ve conquered before,” she said taking a deep breath of the smoke caused by the blazing fires on the walls.
“We are here to bring up a civilisation by cutting out the weeds for the flowers to bloom; not to murder for the sake of murder, fiend!” Irulan snapped.
She whirled her bald, grey head towards Irulan. She slightly flinched at Von-wratha’s speed. “So, you are little more than glorified gardeners then, hmm?” her clam-like mouth smiled revealing her sharp, broken teeth.
“We bring order to chaos. We were called to come here and now we claim this land, its residents and its fount of power for the Farraleese Empire,” Xolrin calmly said. His face was as stiff as stone, and his body stood tall and unmoving regardless of the rolling winds across the bare balcony.
“Keep telling yourselves that. We may do things for very different reasons, but regardless of what they are – people always die,” Von said licking her top sharp teeth.
A shockwave struck the belly of the airship, causing it to suddenly waver and tilt making the three of them lose balance. Von-wratha’s stomach pressed against the railing with her upper body hunched causing her to slide over to the ground directly below her. Instinctively, her psionic power allowed her to levitate in the air effortlessly, unlike her allies who were gathering themselves from the polished wooden floor.
Irulan was the first to collect herself. She took Xolrin’s arm and hoisted him to his feet. Von-wratha almost laughed until she saw his eyes were closed and were focused on a psychic transmission from his lieutenants.
“Your military seems to be significantly more powerful than you claimed, Von-wratha. They’re causing quite a bit of destruction to my ships,” he said with his black brows furrowed.
“It’s been decades since I was last here, Xolrin. Who knows how far Girians have come to develop their power, they may even be a challenge for you!” Von tilted her head back into a psychotic laugh.
“I have fronted greater enemies before, and now they are all under my rule,” Xolrin looked toward the horizon with the great spire that sat in the centre of the city, “I want that fountain of power. Meet my soldiers below and show your people what they have created.”
Von-wratha’s red eyes blazed with fury at Xolrin’s words. Giria wasn’t her home anymore, her people had forsaken her decades ago and hoped that she would die out in the deserts and be forgotten like all undesirables. Von-wratha levitated over the balcony railing and descended to the battlefield below. Grey smoke billowed around her torso, clouding her sight and filling her nose.
A violet ball of energy shot through the smoke whirling it away. It barely missed Von-wratha. She opened her senses to seek for anything beyond the smoke. A group of Girian soldiers were in a lined formation blasting violet energy balls from their hands towards the land ships. Armoured Farraleese footmen skipped across the black metallic rubble, unleashing a torrent of aqua lasers at the Girian soldiers who stood along the partially ruined walls.
Von-wratha’s skin tingled as the Girian soldiers struck by the lasers toppled over the ruins, falling to their deaths. The Farraleese were relentless. Their vehicles drove over the piles of metal as their soldiers forced the Girians further back into their city. She finally landed her bare bony feet on the cracked soil. Farraleese soldiers watched in awe as her blinding aura shone in the desert sun, as her tattered black robes hung loosely around her body. Her blood red eyes looked to the direction of the ruined walls, where the snake-helmed Girian zealots disappeared behind piles of debris and bodies.
The Farraleese continued moving their vehicles forward, crawling over the ruined walls like beetles over a dusty mound, while copper armoured footmen followed. They patted each other on the back while thrusting their ranged weapons in the air for their enemies were already retreating from the battle. But Von-wratha wasn’t convinced.
I sense an ambush; my soldiers must be immediately notified! Irulan’s voice came through her telepathic mind.
Before Von-wratha could respond, her gaze was caught far into the distance. Atop the Spire, a twinkling azure spark grew until it released a beautiful stream of blue energy towards the ruined walls.
The beam ripped across the city, electrifying the air and igniting the red trees into nightmarish torches. Psionic energy exploded from Von-wratha’s mind and curled around protecting her body in a scarlet sphere. She watched as the beam disintegrated pieces of the wall and grounds, instantly vaporising the Farraleese soldiers.
Von-wratha had no time to consider the rush of death she felt ripple through her body, as the blue beam struck her red barrier and nullified it on impact. Her feet left the ground, and her body tumbled several steps behind onto the earth. She quickly regained her bearings and slapped away her tattered scarf from her face to watch the beam retract into a twinkle atop the Spire.
The beam-touched smoking grounds became cracked and blackened. There was a sizeable crater etched into the land where Von-wratha’s shield repelled the beam. Amongst the smoke, she saw charred corpses that were little more than dust, while others had smoke emanating from them. Farraleese soldiers clambered over the mounds of rubble with their copper armours in flames, frantically running in any direction from the fire that was on their backs.
Von-wratha sensed Irulan’s emotions long before her thoughts came to her mind.
We are pulling back, return to the airship, she said.
Nonsense, I have waited for too long, for you to cower and skip back home, Von replied.
Our armada shall continue into Giria. I have never witnessed that kind of power before, truly, this will be my greatest contribution to the Empire, Xolrin’s thoughts rolled into the commune.
Your Highness, that attack was potent enough to cut through the plating of our tanks and disintegrate our most seasoned warriors. Another attack could destroy our flagship, Irulan begged.
That one beam took all the focus of Giria’s greatest psychics, they’re now in no shape to resist their fates, Von said before breaking the commune.
She straightened her back as she pumped energy through her legs, strengthening her muscles. Her feet kicked off the ground, breaking it underneath her, as she dashed through the warzone, skipping over the metal piles and through the ruined Black Walls. To her surprise, there were no masses of zealots waiting for the Farraleese beyond, only mounds of rubble, singed gardens and small groups of warriors. She prepared herself to quash the zealots, but Xolrin’s soldiers snipped them before she could close in.
Stealing my kills … Von whispered to Irulan but was met with a mental image of her smirk.
As she rushed through the burning trees, the Spire grew larger. After several turns, she came to the bridge that separated the outer city from the inner, where the most respected in society dwelled. She halted her charge and spat on the perfectly aligned creamy stones until her eye turned to a shimmering barrier before the walkway. She reached out her hand to touch the veil and saw her aura getting pulled through. Clever, Von-wratha thought. The oracles placed an absorption shield around their Spire that sucks the life-force from uninvited guests. The nigh transparent wall was too great to leap over, even levitation could prove deadly if there was no opening.
Shots could be heard echoing in the distance. The Farraleese were pushing their way into the outer city. Irluan was close. Her senses spiked. Someone beyond the barrier aimed at her head and released a lance of energy towards her. Von-wratha immediately wrapped her form in shadow and slinked away from the zealots that continued firing after her. She darted over the bridge and behind an abandoned building that took several blasts from the zealots.
Von-wratha returned to her visible body and instantly felt a sharp pain in her upper temple. Navy blood poured down her brow and past her eyes. Its stench reminded her of the innards of a bosh’kag. She wrapped her wound using her dead-looking hands, hoping to quicken the telekinetic healing process, but that seemed to worsen the pain.
The streets were in disarray. Broken windows and doors torn from their hinges lay scattered on the pavements. Ripped clothes and scrolls danced in the warm winds that rolled through the bare city. This had been her doing; all this destruction. This grey city was the bare bones of the colourful neon lights that Von-wratha used to admire as a youngling. Now, no younglings will ever see the neon lights of Giria again.
“Die, invader!” shouted a serpent-headed zealot. Von-wratha glanced around to see several snake-headed warriors surrounding her with their glowing hands ready to attack.
“Never!” she roared and with her free hand unleashed a red wave forcing the warriors into the buildings along the street.
They fired back at Von-wratha, toppling her onto the pavement. Another warrior rushed over and stomped onto her bare leg. She curled into a ball; Her red aura pulsated and released a crescent-shaped energy blade that cut into other warrior’s shins. Their backs impacted the pavement followed by their howls of pain that echoed through the streets.
She heard a march of heavy metal boots on the stone floor. Irulan and her soldiers were close. Their copper armour glittered in the sun as they fired into the warriors. Von-wratha levitated to her feet and telekinetically hurled the warriors against a building wall. Flames burst forth from her palms, curling in vortex towards her helpless victims. Their pleas for mercy and screams of pain were drowned out by the fires roar and her wicked laughter.
“That’s enough, Von-wratha!” Irulan shouted from behind.
“As you command ‘Emperor’ Irulan,” Von waved her arms, and the flames vanished from her hands and the air, “thought you would have appreciated me saving you.”
She looked to where the zealots once stood, in their places were patches of dust on the street.
“We have taken the outer city and obliterated most of the Girian forces, but we hardly observed any civilians around,” she said.
“Good spotting,” Von-wratha rubbed her pointy chin. “also, the oracles placed an absorption barrier around the inner city which will suck the life from us if we were to get too near.”
“The Spire’s the only place that’s protected, the civilians must’ve been evacuated in there,” Irulan said as her eyes darted around the pulsating dome.
“The absorption shield will get stronger if you throw all our fire at it. I might be able to pull it down over several days or wait when then oracles blast us again,” Von said.
“We’re not risking it. Could the survivors be heading into the inner city from some access point? Like an underground tunnel?” she said tugging at her sweat-stained collar.
“You are not as foolish as you appear, Irulan.” Von-wratha’s blood-soaked face smiled at Irulan’s scowl.
~
The caverns seemed to stretch into infinity. Some believe that they could continue beyond the province and reach into dark hells. Daring younglings who entered the underground network would often challenge each other on who could go further, however, the winners wouldn’t be seen again.
Von-wratha was no stranger to these caverns. Even in the darkness, her keen senses could feel rock formations around her with each tap of her foot. She crept among the shadows in the drafting tunnels, searching for any survivors that she might follow. Her skin tingled from the slight tremors in the ground as if several feet walked onto the stone. She opened her mind to sense a band of refugees in rugged robes muttering and crying to themselves.
She stalked them until they came about a large metal door that was moulded into the shape of a snake’s maw. The refugees stopped, and the door unlocked its mechanisms to raise the hatch. Von-wratha rushed over to the tail end of the group to appear as one of them.
They walked through a familiar hall lined with guards on either side watching closely at all the members of the band. Von-wratha kept her head low and eyes closed. The hall led to the underground dungeons below the Spire, where once she was kept in the sensory-voiding chambers. Rage and hate heated her cheeks at the memory of that time, where Nalax sided with the oracles and threw her to the deserts. However, the multi-levelled dungeons transformed into a haven for Girians seeking shelter from the Farraleese bombardment. Many commoners kept to their kin, some lay on stretchers bleeding and dying, clinging to their weeping loved ones.
An explosion was heard high above the stone ceiling. Irulan was attempting to break through the barrier with her cannons. Younglings cried out to their parents, and people cowered against the dungeon walls.
“Those devils are trying to get in,” a female voice whispered. Von-wratha’s eye caught the figure that spoke. She studied this female for a moment, but it felt like an eternity had passed. Her skin was a healthy pale grey with soft and smooth hands. Her belly was large and on the verge of birth. She was draped in gold and sunset orange robes hanging loosely around her shoulders and arms.
“Blyth…” Von whispered. Another louder explosion rippled through the chamber, and some loose stone chips fell from the ceiling.
Blyth turned out of sight and disappeared behind a dark pillar as Von-wratha ducked her head lower and hastily pursued. She followed Blyth down a corridor and watched her enter a separate room. Her telepathic and hearing prowess allowed her to hear Blyth talking to another. Her skin tingled when she realised there was another in the room with Blyth, a great evil.
“They will overrun this city by nightfall, we need to begin evacuations now.”
“The oracles won’t allow them to enter this spire, the invaders will discover the power of the Twins soon,” a grating voice responded.
“We’re all that’s left. The others escaped through the portal, Nalax would’ve seen to that. We need to get the rest through and you too, Matron Aeos,” Blyth said.
Von-wratha felt her black heart trying to escape her chest. She tried to contain her foul excitement in case Blyth or Matron Aeos sensed her presence.
“No! A little while longer, I need to see something through,” Aeos croaked.
“I will tell the people to continue their prayers, but if I sense the shield waning, then we move. With or without you, matron,” Blyth said and reappeared down the hall. Von-wratha quickly hid among a small group of survivors to allow Blyth to pass.
Matron Aeos was only a few steps away from her, alone and vulnerable.
“I can smell you from here,” the old crone said. Her nightmarish body was wrapped in blankets and pillows on a stone slab at the end of the room. Von-wratha was surprised to see this freakish creature still clinging onto some form of life. Her eyes were now hallowed dark sockets, her nose was missing, and her lips shrivelled away revealing several sharp teeth.
“Does my appearance frighten you, Von? Were you expecting a challenge?” Aeos said with a hoarse cackle.
“I prayed to see you alive when I returned. For once, my prayers were answered,” Von said.
“I stayed just long enough for you to return home, daughter,” she said when her eyeless head twitched to Von-wratha’s direction.
“It would be futile to alarm the guards. Everyone will be destroyed by the end of tonight, I just wanted you to be the first one to know that, and all memory of you and Giria will be erased forever,” Von said.
“So dramatic. Out of all my fledglings, you were the brightest, but my greatest shame. I trained you into something wonderful, cared for you after rescuing you from death, and you always fought me. I prayed for an answer for so long,” Aeos said.
“There might be an answer for you on the other side.” Von’s eyes burned with fury.
Aeos’s chuckle was little more than a guttural cough and wheeze. “I already have it, and this was all in their plan. I should thank you.”
Von-wratha stiffened and clocked her head to the side. “Why? Did your gods see I would destroy this city?”
“You are bringing us home,” she said.
“Then I won’t keep you from them,” Von whispered.
Aeos’ lips curled back, exposing her torn gums even further. “I love-,”
Von-wratha placed her hand on Aeos’s chest, hoping psionic power would keep her alive just long enough until she could enact her vengeance. Matron Aeos moaned as Von-wratha’s other hand swiped her former matron’s face, spitting blood on the blankets. In an instant, Aeos reached out and clung around Von-wratha’s face. Electricity shot through her skull from the matron’s palm, her thoughts scrambled, and her focus broke. She ripped off the crone’s hand from her face and staggered back. Her vision was blurred, and she felt her stomach trying to crawl out of her throat. Hot blood dribbled down her chin as she collapsed under her weight.
Brain-shred. Von-wratha realised Aeos had tried to liquefy her brain while within her skull. She climbed to her feet, and with her last psionic rage, she lifted Matron Aeos from her bed and with her hands ripped the witch in half. Von-wratha hadn’t even noticed that her maddened screams caused a crowd to gather outside the room.
Blyth pushed passed the crowd and gasped at the gruesome scene. “What have you done?” she demanded.
Von-wratha’s eyes stung and blurred as her blue tears poured out. This was something she could not rejuvenate from on her own. “Save me from the water again, Blyth.”
Blyth’s face collapsed into shock, her eyes widened and her mouth agape. ‘Von? I thought you were-.”
Von-wratha rose her hand, and a dark swirl appeared in her palm. The life-energies of the crowd came from their eyes and mouths as she drew them into her hands. Some attempted to run, while others tried calling for the guards, but all screamed as she sucked away their life-force. Blyth’s face twisted in agony as she collapsed to the ground, gagging and trying to gulp down air while clutching her pregnant belly. Zealots burst through the carnage and were met with the same fate.
Von-wratha felt her body rise off the blood-soaked floor, rejuvenating as each person died. She glided out of the room and into the death chamber, staring at their horrified and pained expressions permanently twisted on their familiar faces. Gazan's well-dressed body contorted and stiffened while gripping on the tattered sleeve of a young slave. Male and female, elder and youngling, powerful and powerless, all died side-by-side at her hand. Death excited her, she lived from it, but she felt no pity or satisfaction for her work in the chamber. Their deaths tasted as sweet as dust.
The lower chamber has been cleared. Ready yourselves, I will summon you through, she transmitted to Irulan and Xolrin.
Von-wratha felt so powerful that she was drunk from it. The oracles couldn’t stop her now. She slipped her fingers through the fabric of this realm and tore open a portal for the Farraleese to enter. Through the whirling purple energies of the portal, Irulan and Xolrin were the first to step into the spire followed by a sizeable elite squadron.
Irulan gasped in shock as she glanced around the chamber. Xolrin’s brow shot up his forehead while the squadron scanned the room for any survivors.
“You won’t find anyone alive here,” Von said.
“In all my years…were these civilians? What did you do to them?” Irulan said as her head glanced around the chamber.
Von-wratha frowned and her aura dimmed. “What I had to do.”