Anthem's Fall

Chapter Seventy Eight

(I know this one's short...I'll release the proceeding chapter in a few days!)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Gravitas

Pulse, pulse, pulse.

Hammer strikes in the darkness, as though his heart had transformed into an instrument of torture. With each new beat, the flowing blood reawakened every nerve ending in his body. There was only the pounding throb of pain to his being.

Pulse, pulse, pulse.

Yet it was the exhaustion's influence that overwhelmed the hurt. Compared to the fatigue saturating into his very bone marrow, the pain was nothing; the pain was acting to ground him in reluctant consciousness. Were it not for the throbbing agony, his mind would have allowed him to sink into a paradise of nothingness.

But instead of passing out, and with an unthinkable force of willpower, Gravitas opened his eyes. Through his swollen eyelids, he peered into deep blue skies scattered with clouds. How long had he been dazed? Where was he? Where was Vengelis Epsilon? He blinked many times, and slowly turned his head to examine the sleek glass of a few nearby skyscrapers as they ascended stoic and impassive into the blue of the sky.

With a mournful sigh, Gravitas thought back to what felt like a lifetime ago when he had awoken with Kristen that morning, her fragrant hair wet from the shower and a pale morning sunlight across her smile as she lay next to him. The thought of her was painful to consider, and he nearly retched in misery as he quickly shook the sentiments from his mind and gathered his bearings. He was tangled up in the crumpled heap of a car. His upper torso had split through the roof, and the back of his head was resting at a strange angle against the tan leather of a backseat. Gravitas easily dislodged his shoulder from the malleable steel and sat up. There was a frenzied flood of people stampeding northward up the avenue, as if the car on which he had landed was afloat in a river of rioters. He could hear them bumping up against the car and scratching the doors as they passed.

Gravitas lifted a hand to place against his face and assess the damage, but he stopped before his fingers reached his cheek. The pain splitting across his face was beyond words, but his condition did not matter. He was conscious; the fight would continue. Without a second thought, Gravitas abruptly lifted himself out of the remains of the car and accelerated into the air. He was insensate and drunk with fatigue, and he veered to the side, inadvertently grazing into the side of a skyscraper. His shoulder cleaved a broad gash into a dozen stories of sparkling windows. Gravitas dazedly cursed his indiscretion and continued to rise more carefully, halting above the tall buildings to survey the streets below and locate Vengelis Epsilon.

A tearing noise rose against the sounds of the city, and Gravitas turned to watch the building his own body had maimed begin to tremble. The supports were yielding, and he watched with a pleading expression as the broad tower began to pitch to the side for a moment. Gravitas reluctantly drew his gaze away from the teetering Midtown skyscraper, as it looked like it would hold for the time being. He focused on finding Vengelis, and his efforts did not take long. As he peered down into the city, he watched one of the lower floors of the Marriott Marquis burst outward and expel thick rubble across the square. Penetrating out of the dusty upheaval, he saw the glint of Imperial First Class armor. Gravitas discerned the Epsilon accelerate down the avenue and toward the fallen body of the Royal Guard Darien. Gravitas's swollen eyelids narrowed as he noticed the apprehension, perhaps even panic, in Vengelis's excessive speed. Vengelis veered down Seventh Avenue as if his life were on the line, and came to a landing beside the gigantic corpse of the Royal Guard.

Without hesitation Gravitas erupted downward, the sound of his approach drowned out in the welter of the streets. Vengelis's vulnerable side was facing an open intersection, and Gravitas descended with a swooping approach to mercilessly blindside him. It appeared as though Vengelis was preoccupied, or perhaps he had considered Gravitas defeated; either way he had left himself completely undefended as he stood by his fallen soldier. Gravitas barreled downward and pulled up at the last second, coming level to the street and sprinting as hard as he possibly could toward the emperor. His vision blurry, Gravitas watched Vengelis lift his arm out to someone, leaving his fragile midsection wide open for an ambush. Thundering up the street with all of the force his beaten body would allow, Gravitas lowered his shoulder and thrust himself forward with every drop of his remaining strength, plunging his flexed shoulder straight into Vengelis's ribcage.