The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 47

Chapter 47

As if a weight settled upon the members of the SIC gathered amongst the grass in front of the transformed forest, none of them moved when the oppressive feeling of a presence approaching their location spread amidst them all. Even Major Kuama wasn’t immune to this pressure and was only able to move her head after a few seconds, following the source of the presence up into the air and above the trees to the north.

As for Larek and his companions, they weren’t restricted by the pressure and began to run to the east as fast as they could, with Larek and the Martials picking up the slower members of the group and carrying them.

But it was already too late. They managed to move perhaps 500 feet before a figure streaked out of the sky and slammed down in front of them, the shockwave of the impact sending them tumbling backwards. Unhurt other than a few scrapes along his skin, Larek got to his feet and picked up Nedira, Verne, and Norde who had fallen next to him when they were sent flying. He was about to flee with them when he heard a strong, feminine voice behind him commanding him to “STOP”.

The Fusionist immediately froze, nearly upending himself with the suddenness of his stoppage, but he pushed through the command that he instinctively recognized as Dominion Magic being used on him and started running yet again. Unfortunately, he only made it a dozen feet before the figure that had crashed into the ground with such force was in front of him, pointing an incredibly thin, glowing sword straight at his face that was made out of some material he’d never seen before. It almost looked like glass or crystal but gave the impression of extreme durability that was unmistakable to someone who utilized Fusions to strengthen material – but there wasn’t a single Fusion on the blade.

Looking up from the point that nearly impaled him through the eye if he hadn’t stopped himself, he saw what he immediately recognized as a Gergasi, but instead of the imposing figure of his father – whom he had expected to be the one to track him down – this was clearly a woman wearing a flowing, diaphanous white and cream belted dress that cut off just below her knees, some sort of flat sandals that were attached to her feet via cords that wrapped around her calf, and a pair of golden-colored bracers on her forearms that were practically flush with her skin. On top of her head she had long, silvery hair with golden stripes interlaced throughout, which was tied back in a ponytail that stuck up at an angle on the rear of her head. The angry expression on her face was the only thing that reminded Larek of when he saw his father back at Copperleaf, though the burning red irises in her eyes was new – or at least he thought so, as he hadn’t been all that close to the Gergasi at the Academy to know for sure.

She was also 9 feet tall, which made the normally giant Fusionist feel positively tiny due to the 2 foot difference in their heights, which was more impactful than he thought it would be. He’d fought taller monsters lately, but there was something about the sheer power that this dangerous figure gave out that made an enormous difference.

White wings, spreading out 6 feet to either side of her back, folded in upon themselves and disappeared as the woman spoke again, though with only a fraction of the command he felt earlier. “Who are you to disobey the command of your superiors? How did you—?”

The Gergasi abruptly put her sword away in the blink of an eye, sliding the weapon into a sheath he hadn’t even noticed on her belt and hidden in the folds of her dress. “Ah. I see. Vilnesh’s spawn. How fortuitous to find you here.”

For the first time, Larek noticed her voice was light and melodic, almost hypnotizing in its cadence as she spoke – which was quite different from what he remembered hearing from his father. There was a subtle hint of Dominion Magic under her words, however, which he immediately shook off as it attempted to bury itself into his mind.

“Stronger than I expected. You know, your father was quite annoyed that he lost you back at the Academy. He spent a good two days rampaging against the manifestations streaming from the breach in his anger, which was quite entertaining to watch, I must admit. There’s not much that gets to that insufferable pain in the butt, so I must applaud your feat of escaping his clutches so handily.” She chuckled lightly with a smile that seemed to shine brighter than the sun, and he felt a smile tugging at his own lips.

Clamping down on the subtle Dominion Magic trying to worm its way in, Larek couldn’t help but notice out of the corner of his eye Nedira and his roommates smiling as if they had just met a new friend, and he could hear a short chuckle coming from Verne and Norde. Their eyes, on the other hand, appeared terrified despite their otherwise outwardly relaxed stances. His own influence upon them was just barely keeping them from full obeyance of the Gergasi woman, though he wasn’t sure how long that would last.

The Fusionist found his voice somehow. “That’s good to hear and I’m glad I could provide some amusement for you. That being said, we should really be on our way.”

The smile upon her face didn’t change, but Larek could feel the pressure pushing at him a bit more forcefully all of a sudden, which made him flinch and grit his teeth as he resisted it. “Amazing. You’re so much stronger than even Vilnesh suspected, and I’m looking forward to seeing what other surprises you have in store for us. Alas, that won’t come about with you running free, because we need to study you back at the Enclave and see what makes you different from our other failures. It’ll be interesting to see what makes you tick, though it will be a shame that our experiments will probably leave you broken and useless once we’re done with you. So, as much as it might annoy your father to let you go, I’m going to have to take you back with me.”

Pushing back the pressure until it faded to a distant presence, Larek asked in confusion, “He didn’t send you here?”

“Send me? No, of course not. You’re his mess to have to deal with and I don’t jump at his beck and call, for all that he’d wish otherwise.” She briefly turned her head to look at the transformed forest, and when she looked back at Larek, the burning red in her eyes had cooled to a dull orange. “I’m here because of that.  We sensed it forming all the way inside the Enclave and I was dispatched to investigate; it wasn’t until I was nearly here when I got the notification that this ‘Aperture’ had been discovered and then subsequently closed. What happened?”

Larek kept his mouth shut, not wanting to give her any more details about what he could do while he tried to find a way to escape. There was no way he was going to the Enclave where his father was without a fight, though he was also fairly certain that he had absolutely no chance against this woman if it came down to that. Unfortunately, that also meant that he was looking into ways to make some of the Fusions on his robe rupture and explode, killing him in the process; he would rather not have to kill himself, but from the impression he got from the woman, she wasn’t planning on bringing him back for a simple family reunion, but to run experiments on him in order to see what made him different.

Torture for who knew how long or a quick death at his own hands? He knew what choice he’d make if it came down to it.

His silence didn’t affect the outcome of the question the woman asked, because at that point the SIC had quickly made their way over to the group. The Major was close enough to overhear her speaking and had no resistance to the Dominion Magic the Gergasi was using, and she immediately began to recount all that had happened after they investigated the feeling of what they thought was a powerful Scission, only to find that the forest was transformed and a large, dark sphere was pumping out Greater Trizards every second. She didn’t leave anything out, including Larek’s part in the explosion that eventually closed the Aperture, though she didn’t mention anything before the forest’s transformation – so there was nothing about the Paralytic Light Fusions or the ambush that Larek and his group had thwarted.

“You’re more and more surprising the more I learn about you. What was your name again? Calling you Vilnesh’s spawn is just too bothersome.”

Larek didn’t say anything as he kept his mouth shut. The pressure of the Dominion Magic attempting to command his obedience was getting easier to repel, but the same couldn’t be said for his companions. His protection only extended so far for his companions, and soon enough Nedira and his roommates were giving up his secrets.

“His name is Larek Holsten.”

“Larek.”

“Larek is an awesome Fusionist.”

She smiled at them, which seemed to send a thrill through his friends for giving up his name and ability as a Fusionist; each of them shook in what looked like a combination of fear and pleasure, and it sickened him to see Dominion Magic being used so flagrantly in his presence.

“Thank you.” Turning to him, she attempted the same smile on him, but he was able to completely ignore the pressure that came with it. “Larek, huh? I’m Lady Chinli, though since you’re technically family, I suppose I can let you call me Chinli if you wish.” Her smile vanished as quickly as it arrived. “I need to investigate this Aperture for myself; only then will we be going back to the Enclave. STAY HERE AND DON’T MOVE.” The sudden command delivered via Dominion Magic made him stagger with a blinding headache, which made him realize that he wasn’t as immune to it as he thought. “That was for their benefit, because if you try and run… I will kill everyone here.”

A second later, Chinli was gone, having launched herself into the sky as white feathered wings sprouted from her back once again. As he rubbed his temples in an effort to ease the pain of the Gergasi’s command, Larek looked at his friends – only to see them frozen in place, unable to move even a muscle that wasn’t required to keep them standing upright. There was a look in their eyes that told him that they were trying to fight the command, but were unable to make much progress. A glance at the members of the SIC revealed that they were in the same boat, though their eyes were glassy and almost dead to the world; he supposed it was because they didn’t have the benefit of being slightly resistant to the Dominion Magic the woman was using due to their proximity to Larek like his friends did.

When he could think again, he moved to Nedira and held her head in his large hands as he tried to will his own Dominion Magic to break the command she was under, but nothing seemed to happen. He had no control over it, after all, though the more he tried to reach for something and push it toward her, the more he felt like he was getting somewhere.

He wasn’t going to leave without his friends, so he put everything into breaking them free that he could. Just as he felt like he was on the cusp of finding whatever it was that controlled his Dominion Magic, a subtle feeling at the edge of his awareness, he felt the presence of Chinli appear behind him again.

“Nice try, but you don’t have even an ounce of control, do you? We can teach you how to use it, of course, though you probably won’t be able to utilize it for long before you’re too far gone to understand what it is,” the powerful Gergasi said, sounding slightly regretful. He didn’t believe her for a moment.

Sighing and letting Nedira’s head go, he turned toward the woman. “I’m not going with you. I won’t be subjected to whatever ‘experiments’ you have planned—”

“You can and you will, even if I have to use force. This isn’t a debate.”

“I’ll kill myself before I’ll allow you to take me alive.”

She seemed taken aback by that. “You wouldn’t dare. You’re too important to us and finding a solution to our problems.”

“Oh, I can and I will kill myself if you try and force me,” he snapped back. He was tired of feeling helpless against this purely evil being, and it felt vindicating to have the power to resist her.

Chinli was silent as she stared at him and he felt additional pressure pushing into his mind, but his own Dominion Magic – as weak as it was – proved to be more than enough to protect him, though with some mental pain in the process. “I have to take you back with me, no matter what. If you kill yourself, all our efforts over the last 1,000 years will be lost—”

“I don’t care about that or any of you, for that matter.”

The burning red in her eyes was back. “You will not kill yourself. Because, if you do, then I’m going to kill everyone here. I was going to let them go and wipe their memories of you and this meeting, because we can’t have that kind of knowledge floating around, but your death would mean that I’ll have to kill them. Furthermore, now that I know your name, it’ll be that much easier to hunt down whatever family you have and kill them, too. In fact, I may just have to look for your friends’ families, as well, and end their lives – and they won’t even know why. Is that what you want? If so, why don’t you just kill yourself right here and save me some time.”

Larek’s mind blanked at the threat the woman just delivered. He knew going into his own threat of killing himself that he was likely putting his friends in danger, but he didn’t realize the Gergasi would go that far in revenge. As much as he wanted Nedira, Verne, Norde, and even his bodyguards to live through this, if she was going to go after his family, as well as his friends’ families, then it wasn’t just their own lives on the line anymore. If he killed himself, he would essentially be killing dozens or potentially hundreds of people – all to save himself from the torturous experiments that awaited him.

He knew right away that he couldn’t do it. Larek couldn’t let his choice directly end with the deaths of so many people, including his own family. He was going to have to leave with her, no matter if it was going to lead to a hellish existence or not, because that was just who he was. Trying to take the selfish choice for once, as beneficial to him personally as it would be, wasn’t something he was anywhere comfortable with doing.

“Fine. You win. I’ll come with you and not fight to escape.”

She smiled at him again, though there was a cruel smirk to it. “As if you could fight against me in the first place. This just makes it easier on the both of us.”

Chinli then looked away from him and closed her eyes, before a wave of invisible, intangible Dominion Magic pulsed away from the Gergasi and slammed into each and every person nearby. While Larek was only slightly affected with another spike of pain drilling into his mind, everyone else suddenly collapsed as if their bones suddenly turned to mush.

“What did you do!? You said you weren’t going to hurt them!” Larek shouted in a panic, dropping by Nedira’s side and putting his hand on the side of her throat, looking for a pulse. He exhaled in relief when he felt it, though it was clear that she was unconscious along with the rest of them.

“They’ll be fine,” Chinli assured him, a hint of impatience in her voice. “In an hour, they’ll wake up and not remember meeting you or I, which means they can go on their way,” she explained dismissively. “Now, it’s time for you to uphold your end of the bargain and not try and run away from me, or I’ll ensure they never wake up from this.”

Staring down at Nedira and then Verne, Norde, Bartholomew, Kimble, Vivienne, and finally, Penelope, he whispered a quick goodbye, hoping that they would still remember him if he ever saw them again. He thought there might be a chance that some portion of their memories would be safeguarded because of his influence and Dominion Magic, but he couldn’t say for sure. Of course, that wouldn’t really matter if he couldn’t find a way to see them again, which meant that he’d have to find a way to escape his fate in the Enclave. At the moment, he needed to play along and not fight the woman, because she was likely to be on her guard for any escape attempts.

“Let’s go,” he said simply, turning away from his unconscious friends. The next moment, he felt an odd weight around his waist and he looked down, only to find a strange magical loop made of glowing yellow light surrounding his body like a belt. There was a flexible tether that led off of it and attached to a similar loop on Chinli’s belt, linking them together.

“Don’t scream. It’s always so bothersome when they scream.”

“What do you—?”

Larek didn’t get a chance to finish his question before he was lifted off the ground and shot into the air, dragged behind the Gergasi woman as she flew straight up and then a bit to the northwest. The wind whipped his robe into a frenzy as the speed of the air tried to rip the breath out of his lungs, but he managed to stabilize the panic that set in as he squinted through the blowing air to see that he was at least 2,000 feet above the surface. He immediately felt a bit queasy and light-headed, so he forced himself to close his eyes.

Don’t look down. Got it. This will all be over soon, so don’t scream or panic, as much as you want to.

Of course, even though the terrible experience of being flown through the air would end eventually, he couldn’t help the dread that crept into his mind at the thought of their destination… and the waking nightmare that would come with it.