Endosymbiosis

54. Fever

First circle of the Empire
Power District

When the armies collided, I dove into the ocean of bodies and slashed my way with a blade. Blood splashed onto the gold of the armor and my ears were flooded with the melody of screams from the abyss - to which my voice also joined. I stuck an ax in a creature's neck and kicked his body away. Another being's claws wrapped around my ankle and tried to knock me down, but then I pulled the trigger on his head and lost count of how many bodies piled up at my feet... So many creatures clawing at my armor, to close to breaking through.

"THEY'RE TOO MANY!" I yelled at Korrok, who sent me a look longer than he should have and didn't notice when a creature approached his neck with a burning blade.

I ran towards him and raised my ax blade, slamming into the creature's before reaching Korrok. I planted my feet on the ground in an attempt to maintain my position, but the creature's strength and the heat of his blade split my weapon in half, heading for my head. I tried to get out of the way, but then a creature covered in silver scales sank his claws and teeth into the enemy's back, destabilizing him and saving me: Lupan. With the power of his jaw and a loud crack, he ripped the enemy's head off.

Korrok threw me another ax - a kind of thanks for saving his neck before I nearly lost mine, I figured - and I turned to the huge mouth of a dragon-shaped being, about to devour me whole. I felt the weight of a gun land on my shoulder and its shot deafened me as the projectile flew into the creature's mouth and lit his throat with deadly flames. I turned to whoever had pulled the trigger to save me and saw Deinos, pulling his gun back and cocking it with determination.

"IT'S TIME!" I heard Korrok roar on his helmet comm and then everything changed.

The pores surrounding the palace behind the Aulics' army opened to the worlds of Itopis, and through them emerged our soldiers, from every planet in that galaxy once touched by revolution and now summoned by Korrok to encircle the Empire battalion with us.

My eyes strayed to the glittering army that spilled from the pores like a cascade of gold, so spectacular that I lost myself in its shine a second longer than I should have. In the blink of an eye, enemies hit my legs and knocked me down on the battlefield. They surrounded me on all sides, their blades slamming and ricocheting off my armor while the stones that protected me began to crack. The enemies pulled my arms away from my face and slammed into me with otherworldly forces, the metal around me crumpling, my body being crushed... And then they ripped my helmet off and threw it away.

At that moment I knew I was dead.

Their blades swung to pierce my head, but then a shadow eclipsed the suns and covered me with a foreshadowing of the end. I raised my eyes hesitantly to the being in front of me and climbed up with my vision the pillared of his stature, holding the heavens and stars over the shoulders.

His crocked smile seemed like a descended part of the curve of the firmament, a forbidden vision of that I couldn't look away. His hand stretch as an anchor to mine - joined in answered prayer - and when his lips whispered with the humor of those who survive to tell stories, I became devout:

"Welcome to the end."

I couldn't contain my smile.

"I already live in it."

I took his hand and Arkadi pulled me up, but the creatures surrounding me attacked him. His fingers escaped me and I drowned in that sea of ​​bodies, watching him disappear beyond the waves.

But then he flew over the bodies, ripping the skin in midair to explode in the form of a beast made of pure power. The armor adapted and fitted the fevino's every muscle with perfection, and, when he landed in front of me, the ground cracked beneath his stone and aurium paws. The beast's teeth slashed at the enemies' necks and threw their bodies aside like sacks of flesh, splashing their scarlet blood all over me.