Beacons in The Dark

Chapter 14 - A Different World

"We hate what we covet." - old Maruvian proverb

There are words to say what Nam hadi seen, but it is beyond the reach of any man or woman to accurately happened to him. He was there, arrested in horror, the glow of his arms illuminating the gory mess of Blue's head.

Over and over he asked himself why his friend was dead, replaying the event in his mind, different scenarios where Blue didn't get his head cauterized off.

Ah, but the arms, the arms that grasped him and pulled him through nothingness to something greatly terrified and intrigued him. The human (he couldn't tell, the man looked like no other race ever seen)  and there were others like him in the tiny town they lived in.

Just a breath of air was enough to convince him that this was not Alphanas; it was sweet and fragrant, not overpowering and cloying like Star City, and even the deepest of forests were redolent with the odor of the megalopolips city.

Nami Exeron struggled for a long while; after he was transported his ion glass blades were still in his hands, and seeing Blue had sent him into a state of violent shock.

When the arms gripped around his waist and pulled him through the folds of space, time and distances flipping and turning to carry them to their destination, Nami was trying to pull away, to move forward, back to where Blue was.

That, though, was impossible.

Nothing the blademaster could do could unlodge the arms from around his waist and when, with a bright flash or green light, he was somewhere else entirely.

And his swords were in his hands, and this trowan was extremely angry.

His movement made a cheetah seem a sluggard, and the hypersonic trains that travelled through superplanets in a matter of hours were snails to him. Nami was before the man in an instant, the dust of the dirty brown ground showering around them, lowering visibility.

With swords that could move fast enough to deflect bullets  and strong enough to penetrate plasarmor, he jumped and flipped in the air, his arms spinning, his swords slashing at the strange man who did not flinch.

His clothes tore into tatters as Nami sliced into him, but when he tried to stab the man, it would not go through, and after a large double bladed swing, the man reached up and grabbed the twin blades with his bare hands, stopping it in an instant, a shocked look coming over Nami's face.

It turned to anger in a moment as he screamed, "It was you! You who killed Blue!" and he jerked his swords back, only to realize that the man was still holding the sharper than razor edge,and he did it easily and with no damage.

Calmly he spoke, "I am Xarath and your friend is not dead."