In a matter of minutes, we were all suited up in Nysmic gear, gathered in the drawing room, awaiting for orders. No one bothered to start a conversation. Everyone seemed tense. Only Amyr looked bored out of his mind but even he wasn’t speaking.
When at last, the masters came with Archie, we all stood up. Vladimir rolled The Riddle of Chasms and handed it to the silver-haired familiar before facing us.
“Everything must go according to the plan. Head straight to your posts and keep in contact with Archie. Does everyone have their Diviner’s Amulet?” he inquired.
Everyone nodded in reply, intuitively touching the tiny diamond studs in their newly pierced ears.
“Very well.” The boy straightened his suit before turning to Vincent with a smile. “Any word of encouragement, brother?”
With a smug snort, Vincent looked away disinterestedly. “Three simple things. Whatever comes up, just slash the hell out of it. Stay alive. Don’t die.”
“Oh, c’mon!” Amyr whined beaming. “We already know that.”
All of a sudden, all of us were chuckling awkwardly and with that, we were deployed to our posts with Archie as our lookout back in the surveillance center. I half-draughted, half-ran to our post in the Borough’s cemetery. It took several grueling minutes to get there with my tacky draughting skills. When we got there, I didn’t pause to rest. Vincent and I split to search the area and luckily, found no trace of the intruder there.
I scaled one of the tallest pedestals of the several angel statues in the rear of the cemetery while Vincent draughted all over the Gates in the perimeter to check that they were still functional. From nearly ten feet off the ground, I could see nothing suspicious. Just stark, malignant silence. Snow stopped falling tonight but the ground was heavily covered with white sleet that reflected the moon’s pale glow. The night was cold and motionless as I surveyed the enclosed overrun lot embedded with rows and rows of weathered, forgotten tombstones.
Activity in Main Gate three. Archie’s voice reached me through the Diviner’s Link. I repeat. Activity in Main Gate three. Amyr and Master Vladimir are already securing the perimeter. Stay in your posts and wait for my signal.
Main Gate 3. That was the area where Vincent and I had encountered the Swarth last week. Frantically, Vincent spun, his eyes searching until he spotted me perched like a cat on top of the head of a marble angel. He looked to me as if to say get ready. He specifically chose to guard this spot because he was convinced that the intruder would use this area as an escape route again.
After a minute, Archie announced the status from the link again. Target spotted. Target engaged by Amyr and Master Vladimir in Main Gate three area. Mei and Byron Flynn on standby. The rest, hold your positions.
What now? I asked Vincent through our own private link, straining to see farther though I knew the Main Gate 3 was too far away.
We wait. He replied sparingly, looking at the same direction.
I knew he was worried about Vladimir. The boy may be smart and quick but he wasn’t in his top shape. Rosario kept stressing that the deterioration of his health might be due to the number of his familiars—the number of lives he had to sustain.
He was slow to recover these last few days and spent most of the time resting in his room. So I had volunteered to do every job that had something to do with opening a Door. I pushed myself to the limits but as if reading my intentions, Vincent did not object. Unlike Vladimir, he had only me to share his life-force with. Plus he was so much of a freak to run out of energy so easily.
He’ll be fine. Amyr’s with him. I said in my most persuading tone.
Apparently unconvinced, Vincent just nodded and focused on inspecting the minor Gates without wandering too far off where I couldn’t see him.
Target on the run. Archie warned.
I stiffened, my heart pounding on my ribs, suddenly alert and struggling to hear what was happening. Was Vlad defeated? It couldn’t be.
I repeat. Target on the run, heading South, traversing Main Gate seven and Minor Gate twenty three. Byron Flynn, track the target. Mei, head back to Main Gate three for backup. Expect no less than fifty wraiths. Possibly, a Swarth. Master Vladimir, please do not open a Door unless there’s no choice. For once, the middle-aged familiar sounded worried. All else, stay put and wait for my signal.
Wraiths hated Doors and Gates. The pull of Nirvana was both harmful and repulsive to them. Its mere force could get the creatures confused—all the more trouble-free to kill them. But for Vladimir, opening a Door could already prove dangerous.
Before I could search for him, Vincent had already draughted toward the foot of the stone statue I was standing on. Stealthily, he leaped up and caught on a giant marble cross just a few yards away. He swung and hauled himself up the tip of the cross. His knuckles turned white as he locked his hands around the stone sculpture as if to prevent himself from bolting recklessly to Main Gate 3. To his brother.
Byron Flynn, still on track of the intruder towards Minor Gate twenty four. Archie sounded distracted. What was happening with Vladimir and rest? Was the wraith attack that bad? After a few moments, Archie’s voice rang through the link. Rosario, be ready to intercept the target in T-minus eight seconds. A brief pause. Rosario! Rosario! Stick to the bloody timing! No! Get back to—
The link suddenly broke. My head started to spin. Was Rosario hurt? Rosario’s post was near Gate 7. Near the old church where Vincent and I once watched the sun rise. It was close. So close I couldn’t bear staying put any longer but Vincent shook his head.
”Keep your eyes peeled. I’ll contact Archie,” he said before falling into a bleak silence.
No leeway for backup, Master Vincent. Archie replied to my master’s unspoken question. Master Vladimir’s group is still trying to subdue the legion of wraiths in Main Gate three. I could pull out Mei from the group but the Master has already opened three doors and counting. His condition isn’t good at all. Another pause came before the familiar announced grimly. Rosario is down.
That knocked the wind out of me. Rosario was the most aggressive, hellish fighter I had ever encountered. How could she be down in a matter of minutes? As the plan began to fall apart, I started to panic.
“We should help them,” I mumbled mostly to myself, scared of what might happen. Facing Vincent, I said, “I’ll head to Vlad and the others and open as much Doors as I can.”
He started to object then swallowed hard and looked at me straight in the eyes. “Bring my brother back safe, okay?”
Nodding, I dropped to the ground, landing on all fours. Before going, I looked up to him and said, “Whatever you do, don’t die,” in my most threatening tone.
“Not in my dictionary,” he scoffed from his perch, grinning lopsidedly as his eyes reflected the moon.
Fighting the urge to look back, I headed straight ahead to the kidney-shaped sinkhole to the south. The sinking feeling in my stomach told me not to leave him, but I knew he would lose his mind if something bad happened to Vladimir. So I struggled with my draughting, tripping on rocks jutting out from the slush-covered ground, falling several times, bumping onto trees. It took me about five painful minutes to reach the abandoned neighborhood that surrounded Main Gate 3.
Once I saw the decrepit roofs surrounding the sinkhole, I halted quickly, my boots skidding and plowing into the snow. But the speed was too great to break. I shot into a broken glass window of a house, tumbled on the floor with shards scraping my palms and face. Ignoring the pain, I huffed while getting up, headed to the house’s front door and kicked it open.
In the middle of the road where the kidney bean-shaped pit was situated, several dozens of wraiths hovered above, swooping to the ground to pounce on the people below. There were five open Spirit Doors, one of which was massive. About ten feet wide and twenty feet high in the center of the normal-sized ones. Vladimir and his familiars were behind the Doors, killing as much wraiths as they could. The sky was almost black with the dark hovering creatures swarming toward them.
Amyr bashed a wraith’s head with his massive Cataclyst, bounding up the air to catch a couple more of the creatures and crushing their heads with his monstrous grip. Not too far away, Mei was back to back with Vladimir.
The dark-haired boy looked exhausted, barely even to keep on his feet. He was getting by with an oversized Cataclyst that almost touched the ground, covering up to his shoulders with gleaming black metallic scales. It was a miracle how he could even lug it around easily. The tip of his fingers looked like crooked sharp claws, which he used to cut wraiths’ throats like butter. Even then, the beads of sweat on his pale face and the way his shoulders shook with every breath told me that he might be at his limit.
Close to him, Mei wielded a pair of thin gleaming blades, each about an arm’s length. The hilts were connected by a long, beaded silver chain. When the creatures hovered too close to them, Mei threw one of the blades to spear one of them. Then she leaped swiftly before the skewered wraith could drop to the ground, twisting in midair to entangle four more with her silver chain. Once on the ground, the Asian girl pulled down hard and lunged at the trapped creatures, slashing them open with her double blades.
I kept myself hidden and summoned my scythe. The staff seemed to form quicker now as thick frozen mist billowed out of the ice covering the ground. The mist was then drawn to my staff’s transparent surface. Once my scythe was fully formed, I tore through the legion of enemies, using the element of surprise to pierce through the bodies of some startled wraiths. Frantically, I veered away from the small group blocking my way.
Accidentally, I spotted a large set of pulsing crimson Glitches floating about twenty feet above the ground. It looked like a miniature red version of the Milky Way.
“A little help here!” I shouted to Amyr.
With a hint of surprise, the familiar draughted to my side, mauling down three more wraiths in the process. “Ah, what a coincidence. I was just thinking about you,” he chuckled.
“When don’t you?” I grinned back edgily while dodging a wraith that dove at us. “Two things. I need a lift. And watch my back.”
Quickly, Amyr pivoted and caught the wraith around the neck with his Cataclyst, clutching hard until the wraith became limp. He dropped the corpse and rolled his eyes with a laugh.
“Now you’re really starting to sound like Vincent,” he commented, bending low and linking his hands for me.
“So not,” I protested, backing two steps away before springing off his hands. Amyr gave me a boost and propelled me toward the Glitches. While brandishing my staff, I whirled airborne, striking down five creatures. I managed to grab the biggest Glitch in the set, ripping it down as I fell. The tall narrow opening pulsed faintly.
First thing I did was step away from it before I got lured again. I dashed to Amyr’s side as fast as I could and helped him slay the disoriented wraiths on the ground.
As if reading my mind, he gave me a lift again. I jumped to snatch another Glitch that floated motionlessly above head. We repeated this a few times before I finished the Door. It was a huge jagged hole that emitted a weak, swirly red light.
In a fraction of a second, the wraiths pulled back a bit, threatened by the giant Door’s pull. Even Amyr distanced himself from the hole. I didn’t know what it felt like for him but to me, the pull was hard to resist. I bit my lip until I tasted blood. The pain kept my senses sharp.
“Amyr,” I called, then I felt his back pressed against mine.
“Yep,” he grunted, knocking down a couple of wraiths and brutally trouncing on the creatures’ head with his loafers.
“What do you think will happen to the wraiths if they go inside?” I tilted my head to the Door, spinning my staff on both hands to ward off the creatures threatening to attack me.
Amyr shrugged, instantly linking his arms with the crooked of mine. He pulled me hard and together, we pirouetted, striking blindly, bringing down more enemies. “They’ll probably disintegrate,” he said, catching his breath. “So would we.”
Quickly, I twirled and took a good look around. The wraiths were hovering low in clusters, less than ten yards away from the portals which were lined like a barricade just in front of the enormous gaping hole in the middle of the road. Even the Door I just made was facing the smoking sinkhole. I imagined it like a like a coliseum, with the audience—the wraiths—surrounding the center stage.
“Call Mei and Vlad. I’ve got a plan.”