Destined To Die

Chapter 20 - The Beginning of The End

-20-

-The Beginning of The End-

The private plane thundered across the sky, making a beeline for central Europe. It had been a full day since the events of the ancient temple, a full day since Bastian had looked that horror in the eyes and faced certain death. He'd been ready for it, fully accepting the end against something so terrible, when it had just stopped. Why had it stopped? Why had it walked away? His armour lay scattered across the back of the plane, bandages wrapped tight around the deep wound in his chest, which was already quickly healing.

His pride was wounded most of all. How could he, last of The Palatine, be trounced so easily? What sort of god was that, sleeping in an ancient temple? Even now entire teams of the Voluntas Caelestis's finest researchers swarmed over the island, diving into the cavern below and mapping out the entirety of the structure. If there were any answers, they would surely be found.

Jun stood across from him, both hands clutched tightly in the hilt of his sword, staring vacantly into the blade. He'd barely said a word since they'd left the temple, finding their transport stolen and the pilot dead. It'd been tracked to the far south-east of Norway, found half-crashed into a snowbank nearby to a small town, no bodies in the wreckage.

They had a head start, but Bastian's plane had already thundered past that location hours ago. He had business in the south of Europe; his personal vendettas, unfortunately, had to wait.

"I need to get to Malta," Jun muttered, not looking up from the sword, the first words he'd spoken for hours. While he'd gotten away from the entity without any serious injuries, the experience had left him shaken.

"This plane will take you to a private airfield after I land," Bastian replied, hands running over the great slice torn from his shield, the sacred steel scarred like common iron, "You have a day."

Jun said nothing, falling into silence again as the plane slowly descended onto a small airfield tucked away on the edge of Magdeburg, Germany. Bastian was already moving for the door, maul held in one hand along with his shield while several underlings struggled to life the discarded pieces of his armour.

He stepped off the plane into the crisp morning air, a car that looked more akin to a tank already pulling up alongside the plane while ground crews hastened to refuel it for its continued journey. None of them dared to look Bastian in the eye as he made his way forward towards the unmarked vehicle, a trail of men behind him carrying the discarded pieces of his armour that they handled with the greatest care.

Bastian got into the back of the car wordlessly, closing the door as it sped off down the road, scenery flashing by outside of the tinted windows. Bastian was lost in thought, not a word spoken to the driver, he already knew where to go.

He remembered how the beast from the ziggurat moved, the savagery of it, the strength of its strikes. He'd reviewed the old archives a hundred times in his lifetime, vast collections of knowledge from across the world, and that thing had matched no monster or deity known to the Voluntas Caelestis. It was either something very new, or very old. Neither option was of particular comfort.

The heavily armoured vehicle pulled through the early morning traffic of Magdeburg, a mix of modern and old buildings that Bastian didn't pay any attention to. Architecture changed over time, new structures popped up with the changing centuries, very few things were consistent with the passing of years. He watched the people out of the window tiny people going about their tiny lives, oblivious to the monsters in the world that lurked in the dark. In a way he envied them, the peace of their lives, the freedoms he had long since given up in his lifetime of service to The Order.