The results were instantaneous, as soon as Kazna's hand came down on the switch, she opened the floodgates to the very depths of hell. All down the length of the tunnel, plunging into the core of the planet, gates began to slide open and lock back, rattling like dominos as the heat began to spill upward. Burning orange light poured upwards from the pit as the last gate slid open far beneath their feet.
A pinpoint of orange light flared to life and then grew, clawing its way up the pit walls and toward the sky.
Adam threw himself back away from the pit's edge.
Ramirez grabbed Krill by the back of his armor and hauled him to the catwalk.
Just in time
A wall of pure burning orange energy erupted from the pit, cutting like a laser into the heavens, lighting the ground from horizon to horizon in the fiery light of millions damned, their souls fleeing towards the blackness of space and Apollyon's open arms. And with it came heat, incredible and terrible. The breaches in Adam's armor were immediately fuzed shut, while the skin beyond was scorched to deadness, cooking him where he sat.
He screamed, not even the opiates in his blood able to stop the incredible pain.
Like burning alive.
But as the suit fuzed shut, Fealty was able to block the remaining heat as he rolled away from the pit's edge.
Adam found himself lying on his face against the superheated metal, waves of energy washing over him as Apollyon's pillar of light cut a tear in the fabric of nature, dwarfing him in its power and immensity. Sparks rolled in slow curtains past his face, and smoke danced like the shadows of the dead come to haunt him. He rolled onto his side, and up towards the sky. The beam was too bright to look at it, turning the sky orange, but towards the edges of the horizon, past the smoke and wispy cloud cover, he could still see flashes, the silhouette of gods fighting in the vastness of space.
Ash rained from above, drifting toward the ground like lazy snowflakes on a winter's day. He grimaced and squeezed his eyes shut, but instead of finding the back of his eyelids, he saw nothing but an ash-stained battlefield and a red sky pierced by the cries of the dying.
Even in the end, his sins come back to haunt him.
He squeezed his eyes even tighter, but all lamentations and prayers were useless now. Not when God was fighting a losing battle.
And had been for a long time.
He understood that now.
Apollyon had been gaining a foothold for centuries, pulling away the architect's power, corrupting his greatest lieutenants; slowly tipping the scales in his favor. Why else would the architect have been forced to ly on a ragtag group of ineffectual constructs to save them?
He had rolled the dice and lost.
Adam had been the losing bet.
Tears rolled in a stream down his cheeks as he called up memories of all the ones he loved.
His children, Astra, Nyx, and Kay, Sunny, his family, his friends, even his dogs.
Another short sob escaped his throat as more sparks came to rest on the metal next to him.
He had failed them.
It would have been one thing if his life had just ended, but now he would be alive long enough to ponder it before they all died.
His eyes had gone hazy with tears, enough so that when the silhouette parted the smoke, he didn't immediately recognize who it was, just a black figure against a wall of fire.
But then the figure crouched, gripping him by the arm, "This isn't over?"
Adam blinked back the tears vision resolving.
Before him, fire-blackened and war-stained stood Angel Ramirez. Most of his face was obscured, but Adam could see his eyes behind the clear visor of his helmet, honey gold and burning with the reflection of orange fire.
"Get up."
Behind him, another shadow appeared from the smoke, hulking, but also limping badly. The red cross on his armor had burned away leaving behind only an impression, but Krill, was still alive.
"I am not done," Krill said, and his anger burned just as hot as the energy around them.
Adam gripped Ramirez's hand and allied the man to haul him to his feet.
Void energy roared around them a mixture of fire and screams directed toward the sky... and the distant conduction ring.
Suit operation capacity 7%
The conduction ring.
It was after a sudden realization that Adam was forced to beat himself up for not recognizing it sooner.
Apollyon hadn't won.
Not yet.
They hurried to the end of the catwalk, where the permanent portal was still glowing with a hazy black marbling. Lanus stood before it, his golden carapace burning with energy from the column behind him. The golden light of his maker power warred against the void energy but somehow managed to stand its ground.
And then another silhouette.
Her white armor was stained black now; only her golden eyes were visible as she rose like a specter from the smoke, the goddess of war come to judge worlds. She took a step, leaving an ashen footstep behind her. Her spears were gone; her weapons were gone, but even without these things, she was no less of what she was.
Perhaps more so.
They did not wait and did not waste time.
Together they stepped through the portal, vanishing from the face of the planet, and appearing almost instantaneously a dozen or more AU's from the planet, sailing along the outer current of Sagittarius A's event horizon.
Below them, the great eye of the black hole dominated the sky, an incomprehensible flat disk of darkness so profound it could hardly be called black at all. The disk of the event horizon was a blazing ring of light in bands and shades of color: one to surround the outer edge, while another band of light cut across its center,
It made no sound, but Adam could imagine the roar it might have made.
And from its depths, spilled Apollyon's tendrils, like the roots of a diseased and twisted tree, gone sick with years, fed on the decay of darkness and hate.
All around them, lights flashed, as apparitions of the architect appeared and vanish at intervals around the outer edge of the event horizon, though they never dared to move closer. The light from the churning even horizon and the light from the architect was enough to illuminate the deck of the conduction ring, no more than a simple warp ring, meant to redirect the power towards the center of the black hole. On the outer edge of the event horizon, a series of warp engines were being used to keep them from falling too far into the gravity well, past the point of no return.
If any of them were to fall.
It would be over
There were two options.
Destroy the ring and sacrifice everyone on it, or redirect the ring in the opposite direction.
Yet
Light can only travel so fast, and the energy pillar was still some way off.
They had time.
If only just a little.
And of course, there was one other thing to take into consideration: Kazna stood at the control deck, black cloak casting a shadow over the dim illumination behind her, the dark horns of her armor curling upwards towards the sky. A trail of orange blood staggered its way to Kazna's feet.
Light from gravity mats glowed up from the catwalk, and the space before them was hazy with an artificial atmosphere, allowing Kazna to stay alive despite the damaged nature of her armor., and granting them the unlucky side effect of being able to hear her speak.
"It is over, you have lost." She said, her voice raspy with her own blood.
Sunny stepped forward trodding upon a puddle of her mother's blood, "It's not over, not yet. You are one and we are five."
Kazna chuckled, wheezing past the blood in her throat, "Is that what you think."
She stood leaning away from the console and planting her feet hard against the ground. Slowly she raised her hands to either side and tilted her head back towards the sky, the black hole churning silently behind her.
And then shadows erupted from her skin, tearing away from her body like peeling skin. Even the black of her cloak peeled away from her reaching out with alien limbs toward them. They did not detach from her body, seemingly forced to keep contact with her at all times, but still, by the time she was done she had several more limbs, and at least two more heads, all comprised of writhing shadow.
Her true eyes burned gold.
"I am never alone."