Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Turn of the Tide

Lights flashed, in shades of orange and gold around them.

Their shadows cut across the metal in bright contrast, shifting and churning as the architect moved. Their armor was thrown into sharp contrast with the brightness of the light, all five of them standing in a loose row against Kazna. Light danced and sparked off their bodies, torn, and ragged.

Kazna's blood glowed like a beacon against the metal.

Slowly, Sunny stepped forward, the riges of her char-blackened armor burning in sharp contrast.

She held out her hand.

Adam did not need to read her thoughts to to know what she wanted. Reaching down, he withdrew the backup spear from his armor. The first weapon Sunny had ever made him, and deposited it in her palm. Armor stil lit by golden light, Sunny flicked her wrist, allowing the collapsable weapon to errupt outward and snap into place, the head of the leaf blade glittering with a sinister sheen.

She stared across the open space at her mother.

"No!"

The word broke the stillness like a damn.

Without agreement or forethought, the five of them charged forward in unison all thoughts of fairness forgotten, discarded at the door to armageddon.

And then their little bubble was filled with noise.

Sunny let out a war cry that reverberated off the metal and shook the very bolts that held the station together, her anger so great as to propel her across the catwalk and be the first to strike at the woman who had made her life a living hell for nearly three decades.

Sunny thrust forward, but the tendrils that surrounded Kazna spirited her back, swiping at Sunny from two directions. Sunny ducked right under one swing and came up to sever the other tendril. Adam cut around to the side, severing a secondary blow coming in from her right.

Lanus maneuvered himself to the rear, while Ramirez cut to the other side and emptied his remaining ammunition into the mass of tendrils. When that didn't work, he dropped the weapon to the deck and pulled out the energy weapon, which he cycled with such rapidity, it was practically a continual beam of light.

Lanus stabbed down at Kazna aiming for the junction between her neck and shoulder.

He was battered away by a tendril.

Adam thrust his arm forward and summoned his shield, severing several tendrils in the process, and then drew his sidearm and fired the remainder of his ammunition directly into Kazna's chest.

Behind them, the architect flickered.

And kazna laughed.

The light behind them noticeably dimmed, and Kazna..... Grew noticeably stronger.

Bullets rattled to the ground as her body pushed them out, none the worse for ware.

She batted Sunny to the side, throwing her across the deck and into Ramirez, knocking them both over.

Adam ducked a swarm of tendrils, and dove to the side, rolling across the deck to swipe at her legs as he had once done so many years ago. His blade severed through the tendons on her ankle, but almost immediately, they regenerated almost as fast as the cut had been made, and then she kicked him, hard.

Were it not for the railing surrounding the circular catwalk, Adam would have been sent careening back into the black hole, but even so, he hit hard, twisting the metal with a screech of protest as his body slammed into the metal bars leaving them warped beyond repair.