An invisible cloak uncovered the mothership feet by feet, materializing the ship into existence. Resting further down the plain, the ship spanned the entire width of the clearing and was ten times larger than the Overlord's transport. Its wingtips just barely brushed against the ring of trees.
"Maeyune!" Jaysek shouted.
Maeyune drew her mind back into her own body and spun at the urgency in his voice. When she followed his gaze down the arched corridor, she saw her target.
Standing at the far end of the corridor was the Wobeck dressed in blue armor. The front of his helmet trained on them, as if he were watching them, silent. Though, the moment her eyes landed on him, he turned and disappeared behind a corner.
The mission. Maeyune had to carry out the mission.
She had to capture the Overlord before she could do anything about the ship outside. If she consumed most of her bracelet's stored energy in order to destroy the ship and its army of Wobeck, she didn't know if she would have enough remaining to confront the Overlord. And above all, she could not let him escape, not when he was so close.
She found the minds of Meera, Clover and the captain of the Beran recon team, and she commanded, Find cover! I am going after the leader.
Sparing no more time, she moved forward through the halls. Aerylis and Jaysek followed at her heels, bow and long dagger drawn.
With hasty steps, Maeyune's feet tread along a floor of black metal, which looked much like dark water with frozen ripples. As she strode across the floor's grooved texture, the soles of her boots gave off soft pats, audible enough to echo against the metal and black-stoned walls. But she doubted stealth would provide much assistance.
She pressed her back into the wall and glanced around the corner where the Overlord had disappeared. With no sight of him, she carried on, sword pointed out at the ready.
Eventually, the sounds of blasts from outside dimmed into a drone. Not too long after, she and the wind celestials found themselves facing an arched doorway leading into a room. Inside the room, the walls were glowing with holographic symbols.
From where she stood, Maeyune saw five, black stone pillars at the center of the room. The pillars reached from the floor to the ceiling and were so intricately carved, they looked almost serpentine in shape.
Maeyune narrowed her eyes and continued, slower. She didn't recognize what she saw. The human race had scrounged nothing like those stone pillars from the previous war.
The plasma rifles, the holographic abilities, and even aspects of the aircrafts that mankind used today had originally come from the Wobeck, with several modifications applied to better suit humans and Vaius's architectures. But those pillars? She had never seen the like before.
She wasn't surprised, of course. They still knew nothing about the invading race.
The pillars had been constructed into a circle. When Maeyune, Aerylis and Jaysek entered the room with caution, their target emerged from behind one of the pillars. And in his hand was a sword with a curved, silver blade.
Surprised, Maeyune gave his weapon a quick glance. The word cutlass gave its beauty no justice.
Where did he get that? she thought to herself.
Swords and bows and everything in between--such ancient weapons had existed among humans for ages, long before the Wobeck's arrival. From whom had he stolen that sword? And what was he doing with a sword and not one of the Wobeck's usual plasma guns?
"We meet at last, Lehrach Gu'al."
Maeyune nearly stumbled back in shock. The deep, metallic voice had come from the Overlord. He made no movement to indicate that he had spoken, but there was no doubt the voice had come from inside his helmet.
Eyes wide and sword raised, she demanded, "You speak our common language?"
"I speak many languages," the Overlord answered, his tone monotonic. Soon after he spoke, Maeyune felt a pressure against her head. Something pushed into her mind, and caught off guard, she could not construct her mental walls quickly enough.
And I understand a great, many things.
It was not a voice that permeated her head, but a thought--a thought shaped into words that were spoken to her in Suolani.
Maeyune's body tensed. Her telepathy finally forged iron walls, and she forced out the Overlord's mental presence.
Panic tainted her mind.
That can't be! she thought. The Wobeck leader is a telepath!
Her hand tightened around the grip of her sword.
"You can read minds," she growled.
She heard Aerylis shift behind her. The wind celestial stepped closer, Maeyune's words having inspired new caution. She was still locked in her position, with a silver arrow nocked, aimed, and ready to fire.
"And so can you, it would appear," the Wobeck replied. Oddly, Maeyune did not hear a note of surprise in his words. Rather, he had spoken with indifference, as if it had been a fact and not an observation.
Before she could demand answers from him, he shifted his body at an angle, pushing out his sword at her. In just a single movement, his posture indicated his readiness to strike. Maeyune clenched her teeth and narrowed her eyes, bracing herself for attack.
However, he remained where he stood, and with each passing second, Maeyune's skin crawled with apprehension.
"When I am finished with you," he announced, his deep voice resonating inside the room, "I will deliver onto the human race a promise of their extinction."
With only those words, Maeyune felt it inside her core--an enmity that boiled in her stomach and up her throat into a warcry. She ran forward, through the circle of pillars and toward the eight-foot-tall threat.
He hardly shifted as she rushed him, his demeanor patient.
But she never reached him.
The moment she stepped into the ring of pillars, their black surfaces glistened, and a high-pitched screech erupted inside the room. The air shifted, as if the space around her were collapsing in on itself. Gravity grew tenfold, and caught midstride, her body slammed into the ground.
Her sword fell from her grasp and clattered across the floor, disappearing in a swirl of silver mist. Hardly aware of the disarmament, Maeyune cried out from the pain in her bones and her jaw where she had collided with the metal floor. Pinned underneath the pillars' sudden gravitational force, she could not move. She could only push her face to the side, but even that was a trial of brute strength against the immense pressure weighing down on her body.
Her throat managed a muffled yell. "Jaysek! Aer!"
The ring of pillars had formed a cylindrical column made of translucent, purple energy, and she lay immobilized at its very center. With only the ability to move her eyes, Maeyune watched as Aerylis fired arrow after arrow into the cylindrical shield. But with each attempt, the energy wall caught each arrow, holding them in place like thick gel, before splintering them into nothingness.
Jaysek strode to Aerylis's side, a long dagger held in his grip.
In the corner of her eye, Maeyune saw a glimmer of sapphire armor, and she watched in horror as the giant alien made his way toward her friends in languid strides.
Maeyune was about to yell out warning, to tell them to run. But she could only stare as Jaysek's blade disappeared into Aerylis's back.
Maeyune's breath caught.
Aerylis's body flinched and curled backward in reaction to Jaysek's attack. Her jaw fell open to let out a scream. But mute, her throat uttered not a single sound.
Even the sound in Maeyune's throat refused to escape.
The air in Maeyune's chest shuddered as she tried to breathe. Her eyes stretched so wide, they reached the point of pain. As she stared at both Aerylis and Jaysek--locked together with his dagger in between them--shock weighed heavier than the gravity on top of her.
When Jaysek pulled out his dagger from Aerylis's back, Maeyune saw the crimson blood that enveloped his blade. With face contorted in rage and confusion, Aerylis swung an arm around to catch his head with her elbow. He dodged, and with her turning to face him completely, he drove his weapon into her stomach.
This time, Maeyune screamed.
"No!" she cried.
Jaysek shoved Aerylis backward, and unbalanced, the tall woman fell to the floor. Clutching at her wound, Aerylis lay quiet with blood cascading down her fingers. Jaysek stood over the fallen wind celestial, and he met Maeyune's wide eyes.
There was no cunning smile of deceit on his face, nor a look of a man possessed. His gaze was strictly solemn as he whispered, "I'm sorry, Maeyune."
Maeyune felt a crack inside her head.
Betrayed. Betrayed. Betrayed.
It was the only word that tore through the dense fog of her shock, the only sense that her mind could comprehend. Darkness latched onto every inch of her body, and she drew in the entirety of her moon bracelet's stored energy. With eyes turning black as night, her body exploded into dark fury.
Black armor surfaced from her magic and covered her limbs. Maeyune let out a roar, but the sound that detonated from her body took on the voice of demons. She forced her power outward, up against the pillars' gravity. Her bracelet poured energy into her veins, feeding her and encouraging her lust for vengeance.
The stone pillars inside the room shook from the violence of her power, and within seconds, two of the pillars cracked. The cylindrical shield shattered and vanished.
Freed, Maeyune sent the Overlord crashing into a wall, his armored weight leaving behind dented metal. Then, in a movement of blind rage, she captured Jaysek's throat with her hand, ready to snap his neck.
Something sharp and long pierced her in the nape of her neck above the collar of her armor. The muscles underneath her shoulders began to pulse and then relaxed, and it loosened the grip she had around Jaysek's throat. Releasing him, she took hold of the narrow object that protruded from her skin and held it in front of her eyes.
It was some kind of mechanical dart.
She glanced over her shoulder and found the Overlord towering behind her.
He drove a second dart into her neck, shoving its purple substance into her body, and this time, it impaired her energy and forced her celestial form back into her human state. She could feel it, something sliding underneath her skin, slithering into her bloodstream. It took over her energy, hindering it, polluting it.
Poison. And she had met this Wobeck poison before--the parasitic poison that had impeded her powers and had nearly killed her.
Drawing from memory, she remembered that she hadn't been able to fend it off alone. Reo had been there to heal her.
She cried out as familiar pain rocked every one of her limbs. Collapsing onto the ground, her eyes welled with tears as her flesh turned purple and her body screamed for release.
As cramping pain forced her to curl into a fetal position, blackness rimmed her vision. She wanted to fight it, to stay awake, to save Aerylis...
Only feet from her, Aerylis lay on her side, her hand now slack against the wound in her abdomen. Maeyune met her friend's gray eyes, pleading with her to fight.
No, I forbid you to die!
But her mind could not surpass the poison to deliver the telepathic order. The poison continued its rampage down her body, stabbing and stabbing. Eventually, she grew numb to it.
All that mattered was her dying friend.
She wanted to tell Aerylis that she would be alright, that they would both be alright. They would come out victorious and return to Suolan to live out the rest of their days in peace, protecting the innocent alongside Meera and Clover. They would live, and they would all be together.
As Maeyune's body relented to exhaustion, all she could do was allow hot tears to slide down her cheeks. Aerylis reached out a hand, inching its way through her pool of blood toward Maeyune, but it stopped short.
Maeyune watched as the wind celestial's pale green aura disappeared, the life fading from Aerylis's eyes. And then, all she saw was black.