Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

55 Divinity (Part 2)

The Overlord flung himself into her energy shield. The force swept her off her feet and shoved her down the remaining length of the hall and into the cavernous interior of the harvester's hangar. She struck a pile of empty metal capsules, and when she tried to rise again, she realized how much heavier her body felt.

Defending from his attack had claimed the last of her bracelet's energy. Her ascension released her, and her celestial armor evaporated into the air. It took her longer this time to gather her senses. Her body was less mobile, and her mind began to lose its focus.

She turned her eyes to the sapphire giant who entered the hangar. His right arm had lost its piece of armor, and blood dripped from his fingers. But there was no wound there, nor on his face or his neck.

Maeyune suspected the water's elemental power of healing had solved that problem.

Her chest tightened. Where was Reo? Had he used all his powers?

She stood in a low crouch and was about to run for cover, when her eyes caught something small and black on the floor a few feet away.

Her heart flew to her throat.

It was the detonator.

It must have fallen from Meera's hand and flown into the hangar in the wake of the Overlord's blast.

Every cell of her body froze as her mind became a narrow tunnel.

Destroy the last column.

Water and fire whirred at the Overlord from behind him, and Maeyune took her opportunity to run. She snatched the small handheld from the ground and clasped it inside a tight fist. When she turned—prepared to complete the mission—she saw Meera and Clover standing beside the Overlord, their faces blank.

The sight of her expressionless friends sent a chill down her body. Her thumb hovered over the detonator's button, but that short second of hesitation had been too long.

Her mental walls were gone. There was nothing in her mind to prevent the Overlord from taking control.

Her body ignored every one of her urgent commands. Her arms fell to her side, and she stood straight with her shoulders back—like that of an obedient soldier.

She knew what telepathy could do to someone as vulnerable as she was now. When she'd used her telepathy on others, she'd had two choices: to force them into an unconscious daze and have them wake up with no recollection of the time in between—or force them to watch, wakeful and powerless, as the world moved around them.

For her, the Overlord had chosen the latter. Her friends appeared to have fallen asleep with their eyes open. But she was witness to everything that happened around her.

"How disappointing to see you in such a state," the Overlord said. His voice meshed with the sounds of battle coming from outside the hangar. He walked toward her, casually examining the blood on his forearm. When he stood in front of her, her mind screamed for her body to move. But it refused to obey. Round and round, she ran, searching for a crack in the wall in which the Ranhabeck had confined her mind.

He heard her cries of anguish, and he gave her a disparaging look.

"Don't expect your Sun Guardian to come rescue you anytime soon," the Overlord continued. "He has my entire army to face, after all."

His gaze fell to the detonator in her hand. He held out his palm, and she screamed silently as she watched herself pass it to him like a friend offering a gift. He observed the device, his brow wrinkling in amusement.

She felt a tear slide down her cheek.

"I understand how frustrating it must be," he said. His patronizing remark invoked a ball of anger inside her, and he took notice. "Have you never been subjected to such a state before?"