Darklight: The New World

Part 56: The Time To Die

What happened next was more of a reflex than a conscious thought. The concentric spinning rings and glyphs on the salt flats were still spinning beneath his feet. He was off centre, but that didn't matter. The great inferno above him spread to all horizons. Who knew what the people around the world were thinking? There must have been mass hysteria, especially in Utopia City. Eresmai had its protective shield but there was no way that it could stand up to the barrage of this firestorm.

So Soran raised the Darklight Sword above his head taking the blade horizontally between his hands, as he had done against the Jubilee Cannon, and the blue light sprang forth. It spread, Soran willing it onwards. This was going to be his greatest ever test of strength. He didn't know about Farrell's feat of containing Rammachandra's explosion in Utopia City, but he took up the same mantle now. The light sprang outwards as far as the eye could see. The fire above seemed to be drawing inwards and focussing towards Rammachandra's ritual, turning white hot was it as about to hit the ground, where it would spread like a great wave over the surface of the planet, like Vittoria's water ritual tried to do.

But then the concentrated fire hit Soran's Darklight Shield. He felt his entire body slump under the weight as his feet sank a little into the ground. Not only was the fire trying to burn him up, it was also trying to crush him under its force. The speed it was traveling was incomprehensible, but Soran was standing in its way. He was a Hybrid, and he had the physical dexterity as well as the arcane might to stand up to great power and survive. Although his survival in the face of this situation looked bleak.

The fire was pushing down on him so hard that every ounce of his concentration went into the shield. He stared up at the fire and he swore that it seemed to have a face - eyes formed in the roaring fire and darted away with the rolling flames only to reappear again, then flick away. The fire consumed his senses, it was all he could see and all he could here. His vision became the orange-white he could see through the translucent blue haze, but at least he was holding it back. Just.

But how could he keep this up? The ritual beneath his feet was still turning, still willing the fire towards Saxosis. On the surface of the Sun there was still a great pulling towards the planet that had not been stopped, changing position as the planet orbited ensuring that there would be a constant stream of fire onto the surface. Soran knew he could hold it off, but he couldn't do this forever. For even that thought faded as Soran became the fire, became the shield and became the protection of the planet, and nothing more.

Time stopped meaning anything to Soran. He just remained there, down on one knee. Any onlookers would see that his eyes had turned totally white as his pupils disappeared, his soul dedicating itself wholly to the Darklight Sword and removing itself from Soran's body that was now merely an empty shell. And there he remained. He would have remained there for a lifetime until the heat ate away at his body and the Darklight Sword, causing the shield to collapse and allowing the fire to take the planet. But that would have taken a very, very long time.

But Soran felt some feeling return as he noticed, after an unknown amount of time, a shift in the fire. It bellowed to one side. He allowed his soul to re-enter his body again so that he could look. He came out of his daze and through the fire to his right he saw it... a break in the flames several hundred meters away as something lowered itself towards the other side of the shield - something that was defending itself against the fire.

It was.... no. Really? 

It was Ana, it was Ana riding on the outer hull of a Lordship.

"Soran!" She bellowed through the inferno as she drew closer. "Don't stop!". She was standing on the top of the hull on one of the upper airlocks, holding on to two cables that she had ripped directly from the hull - primary power cables hooked up to the clandestine generator of the Lordship. All around the ship was a rotating pulse electric blue light - a forcefield of her own making thanks to her biological augmentation. And finally he noticed that the ship was covered in... frost. She had super-powered her personal bodily cooling system using the Clandestine Generator, the arctic air held within her forcefield bubble and protecting it against the inferno which would take out anyone who was stupid enough to fly into the fire.

But Ana wasn't stupid, Ana was a genius.

"Hold on, Soran! Help is on the way!" She cried as something bright blue dropped from the ship and through his Darklight shield, impacting the ground. Was all of this real? Was this a dream, or was this hell? For all Soran knew he was already dead. How the hell could a Lordship be piloted into an area that was as hot as the surface of the Sun? But then again... how could Soran be holding back a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun?

He noticed a stirring behind him as Rammachandra began to move. At this point he realized that this must be real, for if he was in heaven or hell she would either not be there, or be the one tormenting him. At this point he also noticed how his chest felt like it was on fire, coursing power through his body and making him ache and burn as if the fire he was pushing against was coursing through his veins.

Rammachandra was on her feet as Draz also began to stir.

"No...." she whispered in a hoarse voice. "How....? I'll kill you...." She took some stumbling steps towards Soran as something hit her in the face with a metallic sounding impact.

Ana pointed a fist, still grasping the Lordship's cable, towards Rammachandra and encased her in a forcefield, trapping her as she moaned in pain on the floor.

"Not today sug'" The voice came.

Yasmine!? Was she what had dropped from Ana's ship?

He felt a hand on his arm. The hand sent a soothing warmth through his body, dulling the pain slightly of the fire in his veins. He couldn't take his sights off the fire or break his concentration or they'd all die. 

"We're almos' there, Soran. Don' yo' go lettin' go quite yet, 'k? I gots this 'ere 'Ritual'". Soran nodded without looking at Yasmine.

What Soran didn't see was Yasmine sprint to the centre of the Ritual's rings, Darklight Staff in hand. She held the staff up towards the orange flames of the sky where the tip of the Staff glowed a blinding blue-white, before slamming it vertically down into the ground. The light spread through the staff and onto the ground where it expanded, blowing away the ritual patterns on the floor like wind blowing away sand. Rammachandra's ritual was dispelled. The pull on the Coronal Mass Ejection was no more.

But Soran had to hold on. There was still the remaining fire trying to destroy the planet, and there was no knowing how much longer it was going to last. His strength was waning. He couldn't hold it back. He dropped to his knees as his arms began to shake with fatigue. His eyesight was blurring and the black was creeping into his vision, threatening to make him pass out. He felt a hand on one shoulder, then the other. The blue hue of the forcefield intensified and the air cooled as the shield blocked more heat. His vision began to clear again and to his right Soran could see the Darklight Axe, and to the left he could see the Darklight Staff. Draz and Yasmie were lending their strength to Soran. They pulled him to his feet.

"Not long now, Soran" Draz shouted over the roaring din.

"Tha's right Sug'" Said a sweating Yasmine. "Le's show thi' bitch who's boss".

And they pushed. The three of them pushed the shield upwards with all their might, repelling the hellish fire above. A spire of blue light pierced the column of fire and travelled through the middle of it, swirling like a needle-thin tornado. As the light filled the entire middle of the fire column it expanded, spinning outwards and blowing out the fire until it could no longer hold its column shape, dispersing into air and space and nothingness.

The ritual was over. And the world still stood.