Ekron

Crystal Statues - 6

Carmina's ship landed besides the ruins of Our Lady of Kazan cathedral. After Sephia drank a fair amount of Carmina's blood from her neck, the Queen of Nineveh asked her to stay in the ship and hide if anything unplanned happened. Advancing a couple blocks Carmina got to the overly armored entrance of Ekron, followed by two hundred goats. With the spear in her right hand, thirty yards away from the entrance, she activated the blade, that grew up to its medium size, and throwed the spear against the structure. The spear touched the metallic walls and came back to Carmina's hand. Hundreds of tons of iron and concrete became crystal, and the goats smashed it, entering the fallen kingdom.

In his throne, once the throne of Achish, Anubis heard the thunderous stampede approaching his chambers. He stood up and went to a locker in a wall next to him, from where he took a weapon he had not used since Gog was alive. "The Lizard" was made from the skull and backbone of a horned alligator, it still had the crystalized original eyes of the animal in its meatless sockets. A pair of horns like those of a bull grew sideways from the skull and bent forwards with the tips pointing in the same direction as its jaws and nose; the horns ended in crystal covered needles like those in the Black Vulture and they worked the same way. It had a six feet long bone handle, with a sharp metallic awl in the lower end that enabled it to be pierced on the ground and keep standing by itself.

As the worms were massacred by goats, Anubis stood in the middle of his royal hall with the Lizard activated in his hands. Only a handful of creatures in the hybrid system could face a goat up close and directly, one of them was Anubis. The goats entered the hall through the walls and Anubis killed a couple of them, but then realized they were not attacking him, just passing by his side, and destroying everything else, like an invitation. He pierced the Lizard on the ground, became a spirit and entered one of the goats coming his way. Then, as a goat, he took the Lizard with his claws and jumped his way out through the gates of Ekron. When he reached surface, Carmina was waiting for him half block away, with the Black Vulture in her hands, and the spear in the left side of her waist. The goat approached her and pierced the Lizard on the ground, then fell sideways, pouring blood from its eyes and nose; then, in a final exhale, black oil came out of the goat's mouth, followed by the spirit of Anubis, that possessed the oil and became material. Then he attempted to possess Carmina aiming to her eyes but got caught and contained in the rat eyes in her crown.

He came back to material form and said, "I had to try, witch."

"I understand, such a vengeance it would have been for you."

Anubis took the Lizard from where it was pierced and activated it; Carmina unfolded and activated the Black Vulture, assuming fighting stance.

"How did you come back?" asked Anubis.

"The cats."

"I guess I can't trust her as much as I thought... Are you aware I have the power to destroy this entire planet?"

"Yes, and I know you can't do it before I kill you. I also know you wouldn't do it, even if you had the time."

In fact, Anubis hadn't even considered waking up Szörnyet from his sleeping in the empty abysses, and not only for reasons known to Carmina; Maria would never allow him to destroy Earth.

"If you were to destroy Earth," continued Carmina, "why are you out here? Why aren't you hiding down there, preparing a ship to escape? I've seen the mausoleum you built for Gog, and I know you won't destroy it, it means too much for you."

"Then you'll know how much I want to avenge his dead."

"Indeed."

"What I don't understand is why are you out here, I can only kill so many goats, you could had overrun Ekron and bury me inside."

In fact, Carmina could just point her spear towards Anubis and transform him into glass with a minimum risk and effort.

"Taking Ekron will only mean more power to me, and I've had power for three centuries. At some point, you start craving for things power can't buy. I saw you dominate Bermillion in a fencing combat. Apart from you, only three entities could have done it; Nimrod, Ninkur, and me."

"So, you want to test yourself against me, knowing I would not hesitate to kill you. You will regret it, when you are cut in a half inside a blood circle, like my master was."

That said, Anubis swung his weapon and Carmina blocked the hit. Then a series of hits and blockages from both entities continued until Anubis backed a couple steps.

"Your left shoulder is wounded, this is disrespectful."

"Oh, sorry, I should have waited for it to heal before destroying your city."

Carmina attacked and Anubis blocked, moving to her right, knowing that she would tend to protect her left side, and stabbed her with the lower end of the Lizard in the right side of her abdomen. He took the awl out of her flesh and kicked her, making her fall ten feet away. Before she knew he was already by her side preparing to strike, so she grabbed the spear with her right hand and pointed it to Anubis from the ground. Before she could activate it, Anubis had severed her right hand, that fell to the ground with the spear and disintegrated around it in black oily ash, because it could not maintain its molecular cohesion while physically separated from the black tiara. Then the black dog raised his weapon again to a final strike, and the spear moved swiftly from their side, flying until it reached Sephia's hand, twenty yards away from them, and activated. She was able to control it because Carmina's blood was vastly flowing through her veins. She throwed it to Anubis, the spear touched him and came back to Sephia's hand. Anubis and the soil under his feet became crystal, and so did the Lizard, the black dog in the Dobruj cave, the cables in the crown it was wearing, the mainframes, Agatha and the Osmógreh connected to her, even a part of the cave's walls became glass. Sephia threw the spear to the ground and ran to Carmina's aid, hugged her, and offered blood from her neck, to help her recover from her wounds.

Days after, they arrived in Kish, whose taking was easier than they imagined. It only took a conversation with the human governor, surrounded by goats, to obtain the unconditional surrender of the city. There were no signs of Maria or her cats outside the forbidden levels. That way Carmina became Queen of Kish, Ekron and Sibara. She ruled from Kish, and besides her throne, she had the crystal statues of Anubis and Llacme. Fortunately, the secrets of Dobruj remained a mystery to her.

END OF "CRYSTAL STATUES"