Kastori Restorations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 4) (29 page)

Typhos looked downcast, and for a split second, Celeste held out the hope that she had actually changed his mind. She took one step forward, though still in a guarded stance.

“You do speak some beautiful words, Celeste, and I have always admired how convincing you sound,” he said without looking up.

But then he raised his sword high into the air. Celeste paused, gasped, and raised her own in defense.

“But your words are useless. To pretend that joy can make someone forget about their suffering is foolish. All things suffer. All things die. Including this world!”

“Typhos!” Celeste cried, but she could not stop him.

He slammed his sword into the ground with a thunderous cry, one which seemed to reverberate across the planet. The world beneath her feet began to shake, and Celeste crumpled to her knees. She rose to one foot as she looked around. The steps behind her collapsed, leaving her trapped at the top of the mountain with Typhos. She looked beyond the edge and saw massive gashes forming in the planet. Lava spewed out of the ground, colliding with the waves which now enveloped the lone continent. An odd, green pulse of energy swept across the land and buried itself inside the cracks of the planet.
His magic. Ultimus.

“Step back, Celeste,” Typhos said.

Feeling strangely compelled, she did so and saw a more pellucid barrier form. She could not see the specifics of destruction, but she heard massive rumbles and tears form. Suddenly, she had the sensation of rising. She went as close to the barrier as she could and saw the ground under her feet rising to the heavens, past the storm clouds and away from the mountain. She turned back to Typhos, who had a rush of energy coursing through his body, giving it a green hue.

A massive rip came, and Celeste stumbled back. Seconds later, she saw Anatolus explode, the massive eruption shooting debris all around her—but all deflecting away from her, as Typhos’ shield protected her.

It was done.

Typhos had destroyed his home world.

“Now you see what power I have and what I will do to your home world,” he said, his voice calm and even.

“You monster,” she said.

“Careful with your words, child,” Typhos said. “The only thing keeping you alive right now is my barrier. Destroy it, and you come to space. You will choke to death on a lack of oxygen. Rich, isn’t it? If you kill me, you die anyways!”

He laughed with much more menace than before. He pointed his sword to Celeste and grunted.

“I have given you many chances through our battles, Celeste. I am past the point of doing so. Your life, your journey, and your futile attempts at rescuing me from something I did not need rescuing from end here.”

“No,” Celeste said. “I will not say that, Typhos. In fact, I will not say that this is your last chance. At anytime, surrender, give up the hatred and the killing and join us. But if you don’t, I made a promise to protect those I love long before I show you mercy. I will have to finish you off. And despite my words and my temperament, I will not be afraid to do so.”

Typhos merely laughed and waved his hand toward her.

“Come,” he said. “Fight!”

49

Before Crystil could depart, she knew she had to deliver words that were unlike any words she had given before.

They were words that essentially told humanity and Kastori that their lives were out of their hands.

She hated it. She had always told someone they could control the outcome of their lives. She never wanted people to feel helpless. A sense of helplessness is what had driven Cyrus mad the first few days on Anatolus.

The people aren’t dumb. They can look up to the sky. They see it coming.
She cleared her throat, stood on top of her fighter jet, and spoke to the crowd.

“To the survivors of the battle we just waged, I speak for the Emperor, his son, and Garrus when I say thank you for what you have done. Many of you have suffered wounds, and many of you have suffered the loss of loved ones or close friends. I am sorry for the casualties, but know that you have our profound gratitude for what you have done.”

Unlike last time, no one bothered cheering.
They know. There’s no reason to cheer when you have death coming.

“Unfortunately, there is no point in sugarcoating what is about to happen. Garrus, Cyrus, and I are going to space to fight the approaching monster as best as we can. We do not have a plan because we do not have time to make one. We do not know if we can damage or destroy the creature because we have not had time to study it. We are the only ones who can stop it. The rest of you should—”

Crystil caught herself. Her voice became emotional. She couldn’t believe she was breaking, but what was the point? She had no standard to uphold. If she somehow succeeded in defeating the monster, no one would hate her for breaking down in her last speech.

“The rest of you should go home to your loved ones,” she said.

No one gasped in surprise. No one cried out. A few shed tears, and a few nodded in understanding, but all looked at her with uncompromising attention.

“We as humans and Kastori have reached our limits in what we can do to fight for our survival. It is up to the three of us now. All of you can go home knowing that you gave everything you could to save Monda. If we live through this day, we know we are capable of anything. If we fail… we fail with our heads held high, our loved ones in an embrace and our minds at peace knowing what we have done.”

Crystil nearly lost her composure as she saw some of the strongest men she’d known weep uncontrollably. It also hurt her that she had had her last intimate moment with Cyrus, yet would fly by his side. If one of them went down, their last memory of the other would not be the kiss and the three words that she knew were true, but of the other’s terrifying death.

“You are released from your duties, all of you.”

With that, she looked at the Emperor, who was about the only person who did not seem crushed and without hope.
Odd considering his loved ones are fighting. Perhaps he just has more faith than us.

“I believe in you,” he said.

Crystil couldn’t bring herself to agree, so without a gesture or any words, she sat down in her seat, buckled herself in, and lifted the ship up. Cyrus and Garrus followed closely behind as the night atmosphere soon turned into outer space, the monster easily visible. Her ship showed that they would make contact in approximately twenty minutes. With the ship on a straight shot, she sighed and leaned forward.

“So, any ideas?”

Neither Cyrus or Garrus said anything. Crystil couldn’t think of anything. Her missiles, even when shot directly at the creature’s eyes, would feel like nothing more than a tickle to the beast.

“There’s no point in us being here, is there,” Crystil said.

She couldn’t believe she felt so defeated, but every rational part of her told her she had no chance. Even Calypsius, before the appearance of Erda and the other Kastori, seemed beatable if necessary. But a monster that could destroy Monda wasn’t just stronger than them, it was on a different level of warfare. It would be like if the Kastori had to fight the humans without their magic.

“Hey you’re going to tell me that you gave me all this great talk down on Monda about going down with a fight, and now you want to change your mind?” Cyrus said, his tone surprisingly cocky. Crystil felt a smile coming on, even though it felt futile. “Crystil, we’ve gotta work on our communication skills if this relationship is gonna work. I mean, you told me we never give up fighting but now just because the big bad monster of Typhos’ imagination has an ugly face, you change your mind? I don’t know, Crystil. We might need to get support from Celeste.”

Garrus couldn’t hide his laughter, and even Crystil felt a wash of relief and a smile.

“Silence doesn’t work either!” Cyrus said to more uproarious laughter.

“I hear everything you say, you little punk,” Crystil said with a huge smile.

“Uh huh, well, let me tell you something else, Commander,” he said, his voice playfully mocking.

But then it became serious slowly.

“We’ve pulled off some insane miracles in the past few months. Miracles that we had no business surviving. Do you think one more moment like this scares me? No way! If anything, I’m cocky about our chances.”

“You’re always cocky!” both Garrus and Crystil said simultaneously, drawing a knowing laugh from Cyrus.

“My point is, knowing us, we’ll pull a win out of nowhere at the last second, and one of us might almost die, but we’ll do it,” Cyrus said. “So what say you, girlfriend? Keep going?”

“Wow, already,” Crystil said.

“I said I love you! What more do you want?”

Garrus laughed so hard that he said he had to shut off his communications to recover. Crystil just laughed as well, back in a state where she felt purposeful.

“A nice dinner,” she said. “Then it’ll work.”

“Deal,” Cyrus said. “I’ll cook you a slab of this monster when we celebrate.”

Crystil chuckled and sighed.

“Thanks, Cyrus, I needed that.”

“I always come through, Crystil.”

Yes, you always do. You always do.

50

Celeste charged Typhos first, her mind cleared of any possibility of peace. He had made it clear what his position was, and so Celeste compartmentalized any thoughts of saving her brother.
The man who I could save is my brother. The man who I am fighting is not my brother, but a demonized version of him.

She swung her blade, and the two swung with ease, both augmenting themselves with powerful red magic that enhanced their reflexes and their strength. Several times, their swords collided and slid on each other, creating sparks.

“Give it up, girl, no one has ever defeated me!” Typhos growled at one point.

Celeste kept her gaze upon him, lifted their swords up, and kicked him backward several feet. Typhos rose quickly and put his hand out, shooting a massive fire spell at her. Celeste responded in kind, using her white magic to create a powerful barrier about five feet in front of her. The two spells collided with vicious force, each one trying to break the other. The heat of the fire became intense as Celeste tried to push her barrier forward. The fire alternated between advancing toward Celeste and Typhos. But after a dozen seconds, Typhos dropped the spell and shouted.

“You do have very powerful white magic,” he said. “But I have greater endurance and will break you eventually.”

The two lunged at each other once more, their blades swinging and parrying at each other. Celeste again lunged for a kick, but Typhos was prepared, bringing his free arm to catch her leg.

But Celeste had done the maneuver as a feint and quickly pulled her leg back. She spun for momentum and brought her sword across Typhos’ arm. It caught his upper arm, drawing the first blood of the battle, as he staggered back to collect himself. Celeste, no longer in the mindset of mercy, charged again, determined to end the battle before Typhos had a chance to recover. The villain raised his blade and parried her attacks before launching her back with a red magic spell.

He raised his arm to his wounded arm to heal himself. Celeste launched a barrier spell at the wound, closing it off from recovery spells. Typhos roared in frustration. He raised his arms and cast a series of multi-elemental spells in succession, the endowments containing both ice and fire, electricity and water, and other combinations. Without the time to cast a barrier spell, Celeste instead raised her sword to deflect the spells. The spells sailed harmlessly out of the barrier, fortunately not ruining their breathing conditions. When Typhos saw that the spells had not damaged Celeste, he slammed his sword to the ground in frustration.

“Do you realize the futility of your fight?!? You kill me and then what? You die in space. Even if you somehow escape here and go to Monda, Vritrus will destroy your planet. All paths end in death for you, Celeste. You are only making yourself more exhausted before I kill you. Stand down and take your death with honor!”

Celeste ignored him and cast a healing spell on herself. Though she had no wounds, the spell did give her full strength back.

“There is always a way out,” she shouted when fully healed. “If we don’t know it, we find it.”

“Shut up!” he yelled as he cast a massive lightning spell which blinded Celeste. But she had anticipated his casting a spell and “saw” it as a current of magic. She raised her blade up and rather than blocking it to the outreaches of space, she pressed it back to Typhos, who fell to the ground trembling and cursing.

“You’re not as powerful as you think, Typhos,” Celeste said, walking over to the fallen man. “You are relatively powerful to most Kastori, but you are not absolutely powerful. I can counter everything you do and then some. Perhaps it is you who is fighting a futile battle.”

But Typhos shoved her back just enough to give him the space he had before. He shook violently, and Celeste sensed a terrible energy coming from him.

“You do indeed have tremendous powers, Celeste, and I failed to properly account for them,” he said, his voice almost incomprehensible with anger. “But not all magic can be reflected. And not all magic can be survived.”