In Lost Dreams the Four Were Bound

62 - Davnian - Devestation

[Once more. Strike true.]

Davnian watched as a thousand blurry shadows of possible futures danced in front of him. Dodging just as the half-Delvori, half-meaty blob crushed the space he had just occupied, he spun and ducked beneath a dozen flaying tendrils. Beneath him, the ground shimmered, giving him just enough time to roll to the side as a portal spewed magma onto the terrace. The wooden structure creaked and shook as more of its supports eroded. Beside the monster, the glowing metal of the dulled Hyunisti thinblade rippled the air above it. The leather handle and wooden pommel were gone, leaving the silver blade's tang exposed.

With a roar, the creature threw itself at Davnian while the air behind him gave birth to a hundred speckled eyes. Flipping himself over the beast, Davnian snatched up the silver blade as nuclear beams of light shredded the space all around them. The massive wooden terrace crumbled as the rays diced it to pieces. The lasers made the monster's flesh bubble and simmer but did no lasting damage.

The smoldering sword's warmth carried up Davnian's demon arm, the hairs on his wrist tingling from the heat. He drew as much of the energy from the tang as he could, readying his attack. In desperation, the monster's lower body liquefied, every inch birthing a hundred strands of potential spears. There was little room left to fight as most of the terrace collapsed around them. With fewer options, the strands of fate that the nightmare manipulated cascaded into a near-infinite number of ways it could land blow after blow. There would be no more dodging.

[One more blow, young one.] The ancient thing's composure had been tried, but its voice echoed Davnian's certainty.

As the monster's infinite members spawned out of thin air, Davnian reduced the space in his head. Bringing his hands together, he gripped the burning blade's tang and sprinted forward.

Leaning into his steps, Davnian charged at the monster as he clashed wills with the beast. Once more, his vision filled with nightmarish images. The dead and dying returned to him, pictures of Rais lying in his arms while clawing his sides, the sounds of the villagers screaming, Elis's disgust, and Neris's hopelessness. The whispers called into his head over and over, threatening to erode what remained of his sanity. The monster and its many voices scoured his skull, trying to find something, anything, to give him pause. Then the scene flickered, the imagery of the burning forest replaced with red sand as the thing found its mark.

Then there she was, the woman from the nightmare that he had repressed. She stood in front of him, garbed in white as she reached her olive arms toward him. Drawn from the depths of his locked-away memories, she smiled, her yellow eyes beckoning him.

"Davnian," she said as she stood within the oscillating madness. The whispers of the damned lent her voice strength as she stood where the Nerin-thing once was. The flames and smoke of the collapsing terrace surrounded them, mixing with memories of a red sandstorm. The gale of the encroaching, unseen tentacles pressed upon him, smaller barbs scratching him as if they were grains of whirling sand. His heart pounded as his blue eyes fixed on her form, and he tried to draw forth her name.

[Davnian,] the other within his head said.

[Davnian,] a little girl's voice cried from somewhere within his soul.

[Davnian.] In the depths, the yellow-eyed woman took her place, overlaying the imposter, bringing her hands to her breast.

"Senna." Her name danced across his lips.

With all his heart, Davnian willed the space between them to disappear. Obligingly, the world gave way, and as Davnian lowered his arms down, Senna's olive limbs drew over him. With a heartfelt grin, he stared at her as he took one more leaping step forward. As the spinning doom behind him closed in, he tightened his right hand around the blistering tang.

The silver blade scorched the air as his right arm struck out, and his claw pressed against the woman's bosom. Feeling the essence of the captured gate leave him, Davnian lifted his claw and snatched up his prize before tossing himself backwards.

The mass of tendrils gave way as they crashed around the woman's distorting figure. The illusion of the red-sand vista disappeared. Alternating between Senna's olive-skinned frame and the Nerin-thing's twisted form, the monstrous body convulsed. Parts of it bubbled and frothed while others collapsed upon themselves. The whole thing began to warp and spin in place, whipping around as the gate within it opened. On the other side of the portal, the vast nothingness of ultimate destruction loomed as Davnian's portal drew forth the tiniest piece of a dead star. The very curvature of space-time twisted upon itself as the monster was ripped apart by the tidal forces of the massive entity on the other side of the hand-sized gateway.

"Bro . . ..br . . . . .brrrr . . . other," a voice stammered from his clawed hand as he raised the melting head of his vanquished foe. Half Nerin, half the woman drawn from within his thoughts, the face twisted in shock and manic glee as Davnian held it before him. Drawing air from the surroundings, it tried to speak once more. "An . . . anssss . . . ansssswwwee . . . . . . . . rrrrr. Brottter."

"She's fine where she is." Davnian almost felt pity for the dying beast as he watched the spiraling mess of its former mass beginning to glow. The whole of its being was being bound together.

Just as he let it go, he felt the tiniest of its thoughts trickle through his connection. Beneath layers of nightmarish imagery, he saw Neris and Elis through foreign eyes, standing within a grassy field as he reared at them. Overcome with a feeling of terrifying succor, Davnian's heart dropped as the thing's top joined the vortex of evaporating mass. The flying head let out a childlike laugh as it imploded with the rest of its body.

The glowing cataclysm began to shine with a sun-like luminance. Without a moment to spare, Davnian threw himself from the disintegrating terrace. As he clawed at the bark of the supporting tree, the monster's final screams echoed through the forest. Casting himself from the trunk of ancient wood, he sprinted into the woods, homing in on the connection that he had shared with the surviving monster. Behind him, the fusing mass engulfed the giant tree in a solar flame before disappearing into a singular point.