Kastori Restorations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 4) (24 page)

A bright light shined, and she found herself back on the plains of Anatolus—except here, the plains looked as they had when she first arrived. Green, luscious, and beautiful. She swung her eyes everywhere but saw nothing.

“The caves here usually show you what you fear the most,”
Typhos said in her head, causing her to freeze in place.
“But to start, we are instead going to show you what I hate the most. You are no longer going to fight what the planet would have you fight, but what I want you to fight.”

As if out of thin air, two figures in golden robes appeared. One was an older man, a bit gaunt, with blue eyes and gray hair. The other was a woman, very close to Celeste’s age, a beautiful woman with brown hair and blue eyes.

“Show me that you can kill my father and our mother and I will let you continue.”

It’s just a projection. You have a mission. Get to Typhos and help him.

Let nothing stop you. This is not your mother. This is an illusion.

Celeste held her blade out and waited for one of the fake Kastori to act. The male threw up his hands and shot electricity at Celeste, but she absorbed and repelled it back easily, knocking the man to the ground. She quickly cast a magic spell on herself that made her immune to magic and charged at the man. With one quick stab, she plunged her sword through his heart and turned to Aida.

Suddenly, she morphed before Celeste’s eyes, turning into the woman that she had known.

“I should have known you could kill an enemy you had no attachment to,”
Typhos said with a snicker.
“My father meant nothing to you. Just as well, since he means nothing to me.”

I know that’s not true.

“But let’s see how you do with your mother standing in front of you as you knew her.”

This is not your mother, Celeste. Your mother died for you.

“Don’t hurt me, Celeste,” Erda said, her voice exactly as Celeste had remembered it. “I sacrificed my life for you. I’ve been given a second chance.”

Celeste said nothing.
That’s exactly why I know you are an illusion. Resurrection is impossible.
She knew if she engaged in conversation with the illusion, she would get drawn into an emotional moment and her focus would fail her.

Instead, she charged the fake Erda, her sword held ready to swing. At the last second, Erda’s expression switched to one Celeste had never seen on her—hatred—and she cast a ferocious red magic spell. Celeste, who was expecting a black magic spell, was shoved backward a dozen feet. She crashed into the ground, her arms bruised but her body otherwise unhurt. She rose quickly, holding her sword out, and approached once more. This time, expecting anything, as soon as Erda raised her hand, Celeste countered with a freezing spell that locked Erda in place. She quickly plunged her sword into Erda’s heart, and the woman collapsed.

A blinding light appeared and took Celeste back out to where she had stood before climbing the stairs, which no longer appeared.

“You’ve changed, Celeste,” Typhos said, his voice once again roaring across the planet. “You used to be so kind, compassionate, and caring. Now you would murder your own mother without so much as a word. You are cold.”

“I know what is real and what is not, Typhos. I do not imagine false crimes and sins that they have committed. I do not hold them accountable for things out of their control, as you do. I can kill that which stands in my way and is not real.”

Typhos said nothing, though the storm began increasing in intensity. Suddenly, Celeste felt herself being lifted up thousands of feet at once, yanked by a force from the sky. She landed about a third of the way up the mountain, landing on a ledge that contained only another cave.

“You have shown that you will not simply bow to me in battle. I appreciate that you will not make this easy for me. But your trials are only beginning, girl. And they will not be as easy as two simple, pathetic Kastori. I will watch with eager anticipation as you take on your next fight.”

His laugh reverberated across the planet as Celeste turned to the dark cave. She inhaled slowly, brandished her sword, and stepped in.

41

It was the same ugly, evil, yellow-eyed, horned wicked monster of her nightmares that Crystil now faced in the seat of her new fighter jet.

But everything else about the danger was different.

Her enemy had reinforcements, both on the ground and in the air. She immediately connected the color of their scales to the type of magic they had and knew that they had to go after the healing Calypsius first. They absolutely had to stay far away from the red Calypsius, which would use its magic and twist their ships into piles of crumpled metal. And they had far smaller ships than when she had first fought the beast on Anatolus.

But she, too, had advantages. Her ship was much faster and agiler, and she had more air support than before. She had lost Erda but made up for it with the magical properties of the ship.

“All fighters, follow my lead,” she said. “Stay far away from the red monster until advised otherwise. Its magic will likely destroy your ship if we are not careful. Instead, concentrate on destroying the wings of the white monster.”

The black Calypsius flew in her direction, and instinctively, Crystil unloaded a cascade of bullets at the beast just before swinging her ship up and over the monster.

But when she looked back, the monster didn’t approach her. In fact, it seemed entirely uninterested in her.

“Fighters, are any of the enemies following you?”

“Negative,” all of the fighters came back shortly after.

Puzzled, she swung around and began approaching the white Calypsius. But then the three dragons, who were flying in a V-formation similar to the one the fighters used, suddenly pulled up, flying straight into the air. They reached a few thousand feet when they stopped, their bodies vertical and their tails pointed to the ground as their wings flapped.

“They’re right over our warehouse,” the Emperor chimed in.

Crystil looked up and cursed. The monsters were breathing in, their bellies expanding.

“They’re going to blow the place up,” Crystil mumbled, followed by more curses of frustration. She looked down and saw far too many humans and Kastori near the warehouse itself. Was Cyrus among them? How could she possibly advise them to escape?

She dived down, hopeful that she could somehow signal them, and had a glimmer of hope when she saw some of the humans and Kastori scattering in different directions, away from the battle. But far too many remained locked in combat, so intent on shooting the monsters and casting spells that they ignored the fatal threat directly above them.

She looked to the sky, and it all happened in the span of two seconds.

The monsters breathed fire together, but the fire formed a unique type of energy Crystil had never seen before. The energy glowed a dark red, far too dark to be considered fire, and then fired like a laser straight at the warehouse. The warehouse exploded upon impact, and a giant mushroom cloud of energy burst out. Crystil barely escaped, with some debris flying past her ship. Her ship rattled and briefly lost elevation, but she quickly regained control and joined the rest of the ships, which had remained at a safe distance away.

“Commander!” Garrus said.

“I’m… fine,” she said, her thoughts turning to Cyrus.
Deal with it later. Whether he’s alive or not won’t mean much of anything if you don’t defeat these beasts.

Nothing remained of the warehouse. The energy cloud had evaporated, and all that remained was smoke and ashes. Some of the monsters which the humans and the Kastori had fought had perished, but that brought no consolation to Crystil, who realized the Calypsius beasts would sooner kill their own kind and everything with it than pick off the enemy in calculated fashion.

The three monsters broke apart from their triangular mega attack and seemed to have different focuses. The black beast headed for the palace and began breathing fire. The red creature chased after the fighters. The white one hung back, confirming what Crystil had suspected.

“Crystil, the city—” one of the other soldiers said.

“We can’t worry about the city right now,” Emperor Orthran said, much to Crystil’s surprise. “We follow Crystil’s orders and go for the white monster.”

“Go for the wings. Chase it down if you have to.”

The six fighters flew in formation to the white monster which, seeing the creatures approach, gave one breath of fire before flying away. The fighters easily evaded the fire and lined up the wings.

“Use your missiles!” Crystil yelled as she launched one with the element of ice in it.
Just hope there’s nothing after this. Celeste, you’d better get to Typhos soon.

Six missiles flew through the air on the creature, all with different elements. The missiles landed a direct hit, and the white magic monster crashed to the planet, just a few hundred feet away from the demolished warehouse.

“Nice!” Garrus yelled.

The six ships then came in to take out the creature, but seemingly out of nowhere, the black Calypsius appeared, launching a massive fire spell.

“Break off!” Crystil yelled as she slammed the ship downward, flying straight to the planet.

But seconds later, she heard screams from one of the unidentified soldiers.

“Man down! Going down!”

Crystil looked over and saw a ship burning alive, the fire-resistant armor doing little to stop it. But she felt a moment of pride when she was what the pilot had done. He guided the ship so it went on a collision course for the white Calypsius. The pilot ejected from his ship and floated to safety as the other five fighters provided cover fire from a Calypsius attacking.

Seconds later, the ship exploded into the monster.

“Is it dead?” Garrus asked, not celebrating.

No one celebrated. Crystil looked down and saw that the creature was still moving, albeit very slowly and with heavy bleeding.

Then she saw a sight that brought a smile and a series of encouraging swears. Cyrus charged the monster, his body visible in the plains, his sword in hand. He reached the creature and stabbed its chest repeatedly, opening a cavity for the heart.

“Ground support will take care of that one,” Crystil said with pride. “Emperor Orthran, your son is turning out mighty useful for this battle.”

“That’s what he’s good for,” the Emperor said.

Their short celebration was ended, though, when the jaws of the red Calypsius snapped around an entire ship, breaking it in half and sending the two pieces plummeting to the ground.

“OK guys, new objective,” she yelled. “Take out the red one. You’re going to have to do so at a distance.”

And someone is going to need to distract it. It’ll just deflect the missiles otherwise.

“We’re about to engage in a wild chase, so let me fly ahead and follow the beast.”

Crystil whipped the ship around with surprising speed toward the beast and shot a short burst of bullets at it, garnering its furious attention. She jammed the accelerator and, to her surprise, actually outpaced the red Calypsius. She made sure to stay close enough to keep its interest, but not so close as to be sucked into its magic. Behind her, she could see the black Calypsius turning its attention to the city, destroying any repairs the humans and Kastori had made over the last couple of weeks.

Then, before Crystil realized it, she was flying over the ocean.
Drown this thing.

“Fire your weapons at it!”

The three remaining ships unleashed six missiles, all colliding with the monster. The creature screeched and seemed to cast one last effective spell, as Crystil felt her ship slowing down, its tail being yanked downward, but the commander escaped the frightening moment and rose up to the sky as a massive crash came beneath her.

“Good,” she said, the closest thing to a celebration she would allow herself.

She circled back around toward the other ships, slowing down and trying to see if the creature might make a sudden return. But she saw nothing, not even an outline. Satisfied that the red Calypsius was sinking to the bottom of the ocean, she gunned her ship back toward Capitol City.

“OK guys, one to go. Let’s finish the job.”

As best as we can. It’s all on you, Celeste. End this war so we don’t die fighting an impossible battle.

42

Unlike the previous cave, which had shone a bright light on Celeste and placed her in a setting she embraced, this cave remained in the darkness of the void. No light came from anywhere, and Celeste felt as she had in the captive of Typhos. She could see her own body and her sword as if next to a star, but she could not see a ground, reach for a ceiling or press up against a wall. She could not hear anything aside from her own breathing or footsteps—not even the tempest outside.

“Do you enjoy remembering where you once were,
” Typhos said in her head, his voice a taunt.
“Do you enjoy realizing that there may even be a chance that you are in my prison on Monda, still? That the past few weeks, in your mind, has been nothing more than an elaborate trick of mine to break your spirit in the cruelest and wrenching manner possible?”