Tales of the Herd - An Under Gods Story

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Grace rubbed her head. Most of the throbbing pain had subsided, but the more she thought about what Nenema had said of what should be, the more noticeable the pain was. Grace heard a snap – Nenema was trying to get her attention.

"Grace, see if you can punch through this stuff," Nenema ordered.

"Have you guys tried?" Grace asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Engilmu answered as he observed the floating rings. "The rings deflect our attacks, or more accurately, they absorb them. The walls themselves shift like fluid, seemingly redirecting the force. But I feel just enough focused force can blast a hole in here big enough for us to work with."

"Focused force," Grace emphasized.

"Yes."

"Okay, well, I don't think I can help with that. Maybe at some other point in time, I could've, but..."

"Sister, please," Engilmu sighed.

"This isn't just not knowing some things about imageon, Enki. This is a... behemoth thing. Even I struggle controlling my strength. What happens if I punch too hard and something bad happens?"

"Then don't punch," Nenema suggested. "Like you said, you're a behemoth. Use your beherium and eat the wall. It's at least worth a shot."

"Gross..." Grace muttered.

"But helpful."

Grace crossed her arms and thought for a moment of different alternatives. If she couldn't pace her strength, then she might demolish the building or harm her siblings with the sudden change in air pressure. But if she used beherium...

She shook her head. If it had to be done, she'd do it. The prickling feeling of pins and needles rose in her throat, and pink embers escaped the part in her lips. She allowed miniscule bits of her being to fade away into vile energy that gathered in her throat before a new feeling occurred in her core. A slight warmth jumped from her chest and the aziza appeared.

"Oh, hey! I almost forgot you were here," Grace said to the small being.

The aziza whistled to her, explaining what it knew of her imageon path. She could visualize the cracks on her spirit reflecting on the world around her, splitting everything into equal, but opposite, parts. That white and rose gold fire gathered around her as the beherium was pushed back down.

"Good idea," Grace said to the aziza.

"Do you know what that does?" Engilmu asked, shielding his eyes from the gathering light.

"I have a vague idea, I suppose. Time to find out!"

Grace felt the flames dance across the surface of her body in interconnected, jagged paths from her navel. The air around her seemed to become a kaleidoscope of fractal patterns, shimmering between silver and pink. She curled her jointed fingers into a tight fist as Nenema and Engilmu stepped out of her way. Grace hovered a minuscule distance from the ground and darted through the air, crashing her fist into the wall, channeling all of her built up imageon into it. The flames webbed along the walls and floors, forcing the substance composing them to become as solid and brittle as glass.

"Now, together!" Grace ordered.

Nenema and Engilmu channeled their imageon with Grace, and, with their backs to one another, they blasted the walls. The room strained to remain compact, but it eventually gave way, flying away in a storm of shards that stabbed into Elohimians standing in a much larger room. The ceiling, unsupported, fell, and Grace punched it, shattering it as well. Elohimians groaned in pain, but a few still stood. They prepared swords and spears, charging at the siblings.

The rings still hovered but had yet to channel energy into the new room. Engilmu took that opportunity to step from reality and reappear outside to engage the approaching enemies. He cracked one after another Elohimian's face with his mace that burned bright with his heat. Grace lept from the circle of rings holding Nenema under the arms. Nenema kicked out, igniting her fist and decking an Elohimian holding an outstretched spear. As the Elohimian fell to the ground, another Elohimian grabbed its weapon, dual wielding spears of light. The entity chanted something and began thrusting each spear at Nenema repeatedly.

Nenema attempted to dodge each attack, but the spears seemed to track her movements. She grabbed the neck of both, but one continued to travel down an angular path, stabbing into her helmet.

"Nenema!" Grace cried out.

Grace fired consecutive bolts of white imageon at the Elohimians in the room, knocking them into the ground with smoldering holes in their bodies. She dropped down behind Nenema and slid along the floor, her feet unmoving. She grabbed her sister's assailant's face, squeezing until its blood oozed between bone ridges. She tossed him away, sending him tumbling into the floor, leaving a body-shaped dent.

The spears had faded and Grace saw a gaping gash in Nenema's helmet. Grace rushed to her sister and reached into the gash with hands, prying the helmet open. It flickered and, somehow, faded as well. Nenema batted away Grace's shaking hands, a gelatinous bubble of white and gold encasing her face.

The bubble faded into steam and vanished, and dark quills sprung from Nenema's scalp. "You can't just grab people by the face," Nenema snickered.

Grace bit her lip, summoning an irritating scraping noise.

"What? You thought that was it for me? Of course not. If I got killed by everything that punched a hole in my helmet, well, I'd just be dead. I'm not dead, am I?"

Grace wrapped her arms around Nenema, squeezing her tighter than was surely comfortable for the woman. "How about just not getting stabbed in the face, okay? At least while you're here."

Engilmu approached and morphed the mace into a morningstar. He twirled it twice and dropped a knee into the back of the Elohimian stuck in the dent on the floor. The spiked end of the morningstar vibrated and ignited as Engilmu held it over his head.

"Okay, heathen." Engilmu snarled. "Where is your leader – Arda'il?"

"You have no will to kill," the Elohimian mocked.

"But I have done so." Engilmu pointed the morningstar at the bodies across the room with heads bashed in.

Nenema stepped forward. "Watch out, I've got this." As Engilmu stood out of the way, she placed a hand on the entity's back, channeling her gelatinous imageon. The swirling white and gold sludge began to burn and slowly seep into the crevices of the Elohimian's body.

The Elohimian weakly twitched and grunted. "I'll say nothing!"

"Okay, don't. But know this. This pain will increase forever, so even if you live, you'll never escape this agony. Even if you die, your spirit will always know this pain. There are only eleven beings in the cosmos that can change that, and ten of them will never see you."

The Elohimian grunted again as the pain seemed to become more intense. He began to writhe, and his music blared loudly for a brief second before he tried to regain his composure. "I... will say... nothing!"

Engilmu made a motion to move forward, but Nenema put a hand up, halting him.

"All courage is null when the spirit is afflicted," Nenema said as her blue skin began to glow white with a gold corona. Her hand seemed to fall into the Elohimian's back, and the entity burst into a brilliant flame.

His cries rattled Grace's body, sending a wave of discomfort through her very being. She was willing to kill if need be, she'd even say she enjoyed it at times, if only privately. But torture, like this... It was so beyond what she knew her duty to be.

"I'll speak! Please, end me! Master Arda'il, come out of hiding and end me, by the light of the Seven!"

A bolt of red whizzed past Nenema and curved, punching a hole in the side of the Elohimian's head, exiting the other side in a spray of blue. Nenema had jumped back, her heat blazing in her palms as she spun around. Grace looked up to find him there, enshrouded in his cloak. The Shadow Man: Arda'il.