Mythic (NaNoWriMo14)

Chapter 39 - The Broken are Free

"I'm alive," she murmured. "Not going to be walking for a while but... I'm alive." 

"You shouldn't have done that," growled Cayden. "Even you aren't that good."

"Didn't... have a choice," said Kat with the ghost of a smile. "I told them I'd take two or three through, but after that, couldn't." She coughed. "But they had my key, and they used it. I didn't want to."

"I'm starting to think finding some backwater village and living there might not be a terrible idea after all this is over," muttered Cayden, softly enough that the nearby Order couldn't hear him. 

"Sounds fun," said Kat, closing her eyes. "Put me... in the shadows. I need to regenerate my ley."

Cayden obliged, turning to Rena afterwards. "I don't suppose you remember how to feed a Mythic, do you?" 

Rena's blank stare was all the answer he needed, but she edged forward regardless. "I can try, if you can teach me how." 

That was something, at least. 

Cayden looked to Allegra. "Give her the sceptre in Nazine's belt and whatever pointers you can, I'm going to see if I can get anyone else out of this madness." 

Cayden stood up at Allegra's nod and ran back towards the fight, past the Order's line and, with some trepadition, behind the chaotics. 

The Unbounds had rallied, even without Svala's protection. As Cayden had suspected, their training was more significant than he'd ever seen. They took up formations and groupings without verbal communication, covering each others weaknesses. The only problem was, the chaotics, under the Order's guidance, were doing exactly the same thing. Raw power decided the slow shift of the battlefield, and the chaotics had that in excess. 

Yet despite the Order's efforts, the Unbounds held out long enough for the djinn to complete his task. 

The archway of deity ribbons began to shine as the djinn's arms raised, the same light echoed around his form. His ley stretched out towards the deity ribbons, twining with their own extended strands, pulling them inward, forming the gateway far faster than when Rena had entered. Once again, the blast of white light seared Cayden's retinas, and he looked away as the djinn's ley-infused cry of triumph stilled the fight. 

"The reclamation is upon us!" he called as the chaotics froze. "With my connection to the portals through their heart, I will take control! The land itself shall rise up against the defilers, the humans who sought to expose us for so long!" 

As Cayden had often noticed, the djinn was too busy talking to realise what was going on behind him. 

The oracle he'd left at the edge of the portal was writhing, holding her own limbs in an attempt to still them. Her screams echoed out over the field, drowning out the hum of ley as her eyes turned the same icy blue as the ghostly light spilling from her mouth, her nose, her ears, choking her. 

A familiar shape rose from her body, pouring from the cavities in her face. Cayden got a brief glimpse of the spectre that'd drained Andre, the spectre that'd attacked him in the halls, the spectre Rena had driven away with her fire after it'd injured the oracle that night, before it broke away from the oracle's body and leapt into the djinn instead. 

It didn't stay long. After briefly choking out the djinn, the spectre excreted from his pores with the rush of the djinn's ley and dove into the portal with a maddening cackle. 

At lassssssssssst! came the hiss through Cayden's mind as he recoiled with Mythic and human alike. At lassst, I am FREE! 

The djinn's tether to the portal snapped, sending him sprawling backwards where no one caught him. Though the freezing spell was broken, no one moved. No one dared.