Chapter 39 – Mal        

"Chosen of fucking death? I thought that's what these cloaked bastards were?”

Despite the situation, Destruction actually flashed a wide grin at me.

"Not those, Chosen Mal. I refer to the originals, Aslan and Andalar." 

My eyes damn near popped out of my head as I threw up another shield against Death. "You bloody what? Is Clive here too?" 

"No, but Danivra certainly is." 

"Well shit. It's not Clive, but it's better than just us two." 

"I agree entirely. It means we might have a more effective route into the Administration Hub for one. Now we need to work out a way to link up with them. Can you fly and defend?”

Death unraveled another of my shields, so it took a moment to reply as I created another. “No. And I’m getting tired just building these shields. I can move inside the Shields though, so we could leapfrog with them, perhaps. Maybe sack off creating the zombie-killing type and stick with good old-fashioned defensive shields with a little bit of pointless complexity to stop him from dropping them too quickly.

“Good. You do that and I will focus on the raw power focused on Death and his remaining Cloaked assistant." 

“It’s about as good a plan as any," I said, rubbing my hands together, hopeful that the new development would get us out of here. A horrible thought suddenly struck me. ,"I fucking hope they're not somehow attached to Death.

“We’ll look pretty stupid if we think they're coming to help us and they’re on Hakan’s…” I had to quickly alter the shield to prevent Death dropping it too quickly. Destruction got my point all the same.”

“I don't know Aslin and Andalar well, but having interacted with Danivra on a number of occasions, I am convinced that would not be possible.”

“Why not? He got Death to his side. Could have had a few others as well if not for Clive." 

"Yes, but none of them are Danivra. Never have I seen a more suitable candidate for goddess material."

I kinda knew what she meant. I would have laughed if not for the fact that I was being mentally battered by the God of Death. “She's fucking terrifying for sure,” I managed to grunt out.

“Yes. I have no doubt that when she achieves a full ethereal soul she will be one of our strongest defenders.”

I felt rather than saw the moment Death noticed the coming company. A slight easing of pressure against my shields. A few moments later, a large number of the hordes of undead encircling us peeled away.

Then the pressure on my mind came back with even more force. It was accompanied by his booming voice. "I can sense them, you know! Their presence will avail you nothing beyond company in the grave."

I fought back against his renewed efforts to hold the shield a little longer . Then in a moment of surging confidence, I snapped back. "You're alone here, Death. Sure, you've got all these undead, but without you, they're fucking worthless. This is all about you, and you aren’t strong enough to beat us."

"Oh, I think you'll find I'm amply strong enough. You have no idea of the powers that Creation has unlocked in me."

“Hmmm. We kinda do, though,” I replied bringing a snort of laughter from Destruction.

“He was never delusional before. Hakan must have unlocked that in him as well.”

It was my turn to laugh though it was forced. Death was damned powerful now and he was looking rather pissed off with our ribbing him. It seemed Destruction wasn’t finished yet, either. I made sure to create a secondary shield in the time she bought us.

"We noticed you were running low on living assistants now,” She pointed to the one remaining cloaked figure. “And we've already demonstrated how effective your undead are against our powers. So what next? What will you do once our reinforcements arrive? I know you sensed their approach.”

It was his turn to laugh. “The friends you have coming are more of a problem for you than they are for me. I know they don’t have the range of shields young Mal has here. Which means they won't last long against my undead."

"You’d really kill your own Chosen? Your own descendants?"

That brought a sad smile from him. "I have no choice, Destruction. I have been ordered to take this planet by force."

"So what? So Hakan can bond everyone?" She snapped back. It won’t help.”

A dark laugh erupted from his mouth at her words. “Oh he is acutely aware of that. Which is why I am here to exterminate all life on Talitus. I am permitted to make them undead where possible, but the aim here is to leave no soul alive."

I was surprised to see Destruction genuinely horrified. "You'd really kill a whole planet? ”

"What choice do you think I have in any of this? Though it does seem fitting for my moniker, does it not?"

"It seems like something you would never do yourself," I replied. "I didn't spend much time as a follower of yours, Death. But I know this is not you, and you need to let us help you."

The laugh that rang out in answer was empty. "Perhaps if you had Clive here you’d have a chance in helping me. But the moment he steps foot on this planet he’s doomed.”

He suddenly gripped his head and cried out as if in an insane amount of pain. “When he recovered he looked more ill than ever. “Apparently I circumvented the bounds of my bond and I paid the price.”

Destruction and I glanced at each other, both sharing the same fear. We needed to get out of here and make sure that Clive never came. I didn’t know what the trap would be, but I didn’t doubt for a minute it would be effective judging by the result of Death telling us. He on the other hand decided it was time to finish us as quickly as possible and he struck at my shield again. My mind wasn’t fully prepared and he was able to tear the first shield apart in one go.

He moved quickly to attack the second one, his work rate suddenly through the roof. If I had to guess, I'd have said he was panicking.

Thankfully, Destruction didn’t fuck around. Noticing the new strain I was under, she ignored all of the undead to unleash bloody hell on Death.

With a slight easing of pressure, I made my next shield off to one side so we could move towards our approaching friends. Destruction remained where she was. Firing out with single solitary purpose at the shielded Death.

"Change of plan?" I asked and at first, I thought she wasn't listening.

"We can't leave him, Mal. He's going to kill everyone, and we can’t let Clive come here. We need to do this now. Make your zombie killing shield again and see if you can take out any of those around us as they try to protect Death. While you do that, I’m going to try and kill him."

I didn’t have a chance to answer as she darted out of the shield leaving me momentarily stunned. I screamed at her to stop, but she seemed possessed.

Death, however, stopped attacking my shield so he could focus on the hero, opening up his own arsenal of attacks. I winced at the sheer power, knowing that I wouldn’t last a second against them.

I took the opportunity to try and drop his shield and was pleased to discover he hadn’t put a lot of effort into it. As it dropped under my handiwork, the expression on his face told me he could well have shat himself as he was suddenly open to Destruction’s tender efforts.

A new shield was soon erected and a second one after that. The second one was of far greater complexity that I’d struggle to drop.

The move had done one other good thing. Which was to bring the undead in closer than they had been for a while.

That meant many died as I expanded my shield. All of a sudden, despite our earlier situation, we appeared to be the aggressors now.

No sooner as I’d had the thought Death disappeared.

"He ran! Teleported away, the coward,” Destruction ranted, looking between me and the spot he’d vanished from.

I didn't exactly agree that he was a coward. It wasn’t exactly a clear cut situation. "You know, he might not necessarily have ran away."

As soon as the words left my mouth, her eyes shot wide before she dropped into concentration. A moment later, she screamed at me. "You're right! He's gone after Danivra and the brothers. We need to get to them quickly.”

“How. We can’t…”

“Get in my Void Storage. I'm going to make a run for it."

I wasn't sure if it was the right call, but in lieu of a better response I found myself doing what she asked. The portal closed up behind me, and I summoned a ball of light to keep myself going.

I ran through everything we’d learned so far. Death wasn’t happy about the situation, but he really had no choice. He also wasn’t as powerful as he would have us believe. I genuinely thought that given time, Destruction and I had the beating of him. But he was smart and cunning and I didn’t particularly want to kill him. In my mind, we needed to trap him somehow and get Clive here to free him of the bond. But… it was a risk bringing Clive here.

My thoughts were interrupted as the portal opened again. I readied myself to create a shield as soon as I flew out, then steeled myself and shot out as fast as I could on the off chance I was targeted.

The scene beyond was carnage. Destruction had let me out behind our very small front line, and it looked like Andalar was already dead. Aslin was injured and while Danivra looked okay, she was under the cosh with undead flying at her from all directions. Destruction had abandoned them to focus on Death.

Their battle was epic and any undead getting too close were killed instantly from the sheer amounts of power being thrown about.

I created a Decay draining zombie-killing shield around Danivra, Aslin and Andalar’s body then pushed it larger to sweep the nearby zombies away in a cloud of dying screeches. Those still inside were quickly dealt with by Danivra and Aslin before they turned on me.

“What kind of shield and attack was that? And how long will they stay dead?” Danivra asked, while Aslin rushed to Andalar.

“Decay drain. Forced expansion and they won’t be coming back.” I replied succinctly. “Now can you get word to Clive?”

She nodded. “I can reach Aly through the management totem. If I don’t miss my guess, he will most likely be on his way.”

“No. Tell her to tell him not to come. They have some sort of trap in place to capture him. From what they’ve achieved so far with blocking the totems, I don’t want to risk it.”

“Is Hakan here?”

“No. We’re all but certain it’s only Death.”

She grimaced. “Yes. Death. How is it possible? Clive saw him die."

I shrugged and looked over where Destruction and Death still fought. “He saw Life and Devotion die too. And he brought them back, so I don’t think it’s a great leap to guess the God of Creation could do something similar and put a slave bond on him.”

We should let Clive know what’s going on, even if he doesn’t come straight here. We can prepare for a trap.” She thrust something at me as she spoke. “It's a different kind of totem. It won't be stopped by the interference Death has in place.”

“Has Destruction got hers?"

"Not yet. After letting you out, she flew straight for Death. She seems hell bent on making his demise permanent this time.” 

Over Danivra’s shoulder, I noticed Aslin pumping energy into a now rousing Andalar. I hadn't known that Dokalfar Prince could heal to that extent, but I was relieved to see the powerful king stir back to life.

“I’m going to go heal Aslin and Andalar quickly, and then I need to run a plan by you.”

She raised a prefect, dark purple eyebrow in question. And I flew off. She’d hear my horrible plan when the other two did. I didn’t have time to be looked at like an idiot twice.

I laid hands on Andalar first and let my healing power flow into him. Then panicked as it took way more than I’d ever given before. As life flooded into him, I felt my own vitality take a nose dive.

I pulled away and gasped. Note to self. Healing people double your level sucks.

As the king let out a roar at the undead testing my shield from afar I looked at Aslin. “I’m sorry my friend. I wanted to heal you too, but that took way too much out of me.”

He clapped me on the shoulder. All is well. I couldn’t ask any more from you. Now shall we get Destruction and get out of here?” He said looking to Danivra.

“Apparently not. Mal here has a plan he wants to run by us.”

“That’s right. Though when  I had the plan, I had a lot more power to hold shields. It should still work.”

“Get to it,” Andalar snapped. “Destruction is being overwhelmed by the dead. We need to get you out of here.”

“Death has Slave bound instructions to kill every living should on the planet. I don’t know how many he has killed already, but he won’t stop… he can’t stop until everyone is dead.”

“He’d kill an entire planet?”

I winced. “These people mean nothing to Hakan, and I’m fairly sure he’s using such extreme tactics to lure Clive here.”

“Which means we need to stop it.”

“That’s right. I need you three to use whatever stealth powers you’ve been practicing and get Close to Death. I’m gonna get closer too, and speak to Destruction. Don’t attack until I give the command. Then hit him with everything you’ve got.”

Andalar scoffed. “We cannot hurt our god. Our greatest ancestor!”

“You’ll have to put family values aside this once.”

“No, you don’t understand. None of us are powerful enough to hurt him,” he clarified. Not that I’d be willing to kill him. But at our current levels, Danivra notwithstanding, we’ll be lucky to tickle him.”

“Then tickle the ever-loving shit out of him Andalar, because I need him distracted so Destruction can get the unlucky bastard in her Void Storage. From there we totem the hell out of here, and get him to Clive.”

Understanding hit them all like a lightbulb turning on.

Danivra looked more concerned than the others. “It is a good plan, Mal. But it relies on you and your shield. Are you up to this. You said yourself you are very weak. And your level is still painfully low for such a high-end battle.”

I suppressed my annoyance and kept my voice neutral. “Well we’re about to find out, aren’t we? Stealth up, surround him and I’ll see you guys there.”

I gave them no chance to respond. Flying to the edge of my shield where I built another overlapping shield of similar construction. I didn’t look back. I didn’t concern myself with their hangups. Even if they didn’t do what I asked, I’d continue to leapfrog my shields over to Destruction and provide what help I could.

When I finally tuned back to make sure I could drop the previous shield, I was relieved to see they were nowhere in sight.

Five shields later and I knew a sixth would see me run out of power and leave me all but useless by the time I reached them. Swallowing a heavy glob of terror, I attempted a deep breath to clear my mind. It stuck in my chest. Time was running out. The only choice I had was to drop the shield. Then make a mad dash through the undead.

I had time dilation armor and while Death wouldn’t be affected by my movements in it, I would hopefully be able to pass by the undead.

It was now or never. I hadn’t exactly thought it though and as I’d never felt more naked in my life as I left the shield and darted for Destruction and Death.

The undead appeared frozen in time. As I zigzagged through them at top speed, Death laid his purple tinted, almost transparent eyes on me. Destruction was still too engrossed in tearing him a new arsehole, and I felt a sudden pang of fear that he wasn’t under nearly as pressure as he was pretending to be.

"Destruction!" I screamed. She turned and Death hit her with a sizzling black bolt of power. It clearly caused her harm, but then my shield was up around them. “I wouldn’t have time to speak to Destruction before issuing the command to attack, so I’d have to work fast as the demon goddess howled in rage.

“Your old Chosen are very disappointed in you Death!” I yelled, as he moved to dispel my shield.

Thankfully Danivra and co got the message, appearing from thin air to let loose their own attacks.

Sensing a turn in the battle Destruction moved to increase her own attacks again. I managed to grab her wrist just before she moved away from me. Yellow slitted eyes landed on my hand and then up to my eyes. Her expression wasn’t kind and I swallowed again. But, in for a penny, in for a pound. I hissed at her. “I’ll stop him escaping with my shield. You need to trap him with your Void Storage. It’s the only way.”

Understanding sparkled in those deadly eyes and she moved so fast it looked more like she teleported.

I watched the battle ensue and watched in horror as Andalar and Aslin were rag dolled by Death. Though he had an infinitely harder time against Danivra, who used every ounce of her wits and speed to keep out the way of his attacks.

She was marvelous to watch. Just like a dancer. A deadly dancer that sent out highly concentrated beams of Reflection Neuma with as much speed and skill as I’d seen any of the god’s fight with, apart from Destruction, War and Peace. Skill I was decades away from developing. Clive too, though we’d never let that stop us. Who needed skill when you had enough belligerence for a small country.

With that in mind and with Death back peddling with the realization that he was outmatched, I made my own move. “Destruction!” I yelled again. “Now

She acted fast. Blindly trusting me and opened up her void storage in front of him. I retracted my shield as quickly as I could manage, knocking the God of Death into her void storage.

Everyone gaped as he disappeared. I don’t think any of us actually believed it would work. Least of all me. But we had bagged ourself one touched in the head God of Death for Clive to perform an exorcism on. Now all we had to do was get the fuck out of here.”

I heard Destruction’s name shouted again by Danivra. I looked up to see her throw one of the new totems over. Then Danivra disappeared. Aslin met my eyes and disappeared too.

“Come on then, Mal,” Destruction shouted over to me. “I won’t leave before you. I owe you that much at least.”

“I'm the one holding the zombie killing shield,” I replied stupidly, rather than just getting the hell out of there.

She nodded too easily and disappeared leaving me entirely alone on Talitus. There probably wasn’t anything to worry about now Death was gone. But I still panicked like a claustrophobic in a collapsed tunnel and clenched the totem willing it to activate.