Kastori Restorations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 4) (32 page)

“I’m out,” Garrus said.

“Get out of here, Garrus,” Crystil said. “I’ll see you on Monda.”

“Understood. See you soon, Commander! Looking forward to some monster soup later!”

Garrus gave his usual laugh and departed back for the hole the three of them had created.

“Cyrus, shall we?”

“Together, destroy the Monda destroyer? It’s so romantic.”

“Watch it. Someone may hear these conversations some day.”

“I hope they get jealous.”

Crystil rolled her eyes as the two lined up side by side, preparing for one last pass. The two fired their remaining bullets together, with Cyrus running out far faster than Crystil. Just before she rolled the ship back to the throat, she saw the heart stop its beating.
We destroyed it. But hopefully, this thing isn’t close enough to crash to Monda.

She and Cyrus gunned their ships up, climbing toward the throat. Inside, debris rained down in the form of different substances.
Heart stopped beating, but the rest is just crashing down
, she thought. She and Cyrus engaged in some wild maneuvers, taking her back to the first battle with Calypsius where she stretched
Omega One
to the limit. She knew of no way that ship would survive the things that
Phoenix
did.

She reached the mouth and rejoiced, having gotten past perhaps the most difficult part of the escape. But when she looked ahead, she saw Monda dangerously close, so close that she could not see any of space.

“What’s going to happen to Monda?!?” Cyrus asked.

Crystil didn’t answer for several seconds as she made sure no other obstacles came in between them and their safety. When she saw the tongue would not lash up, she sighed.

“We have to hope we survive an impact of this beast,” she said.

Knowing the size of the creature and its speed, though, Crystil didn’t have a lot of faith.

Suddenly Cyrus swore repeatedly.

“Something hit my wing!”

Crystil looked over and saw his left wing had completely broken.

“Cyrus!” she cried out.

“Magic… will help…”

“Focus, Cyrus, you’re not dying today.”

The ship stabilized somewhat, preventing it from crashing inside the beast. The two emerged and flew down to Monda, entering the atmosphere in no time. They had survived.

But with the beast on a collision course and Cyrus’ ship on an unstoppable, barely-controlled descent, Crystil wondered if she would have anything worth surviving for in the next minute.

54

All of the cold, single-minded focus Celeste had equipped herself with the minute she left Monda vanished at the haunting sight. She’d only seen bits of Typhos’ face when his mask shattered, and even then, she was dying and not able to focus.

But seeing him now, maskless, scarred, and fully visible, she knew he was family. He didn’t pass as an exact clone for Cyrus, but the similarities. The eyes. The strong jaw. The sarcastic tone that, for Cyrus, functioned as wit and, for Typhos, disgust. She had to kill him for the sake of peace, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t mourn his passing.

She knelt beside him as he coughed up blood and it pooled out of his body. She gave thought to healing him but stopped herself, knowing that as much as he was family, he would not turn. He had to die for the greater good.

“You…” he said, and his voice no longer sounded hateful and angry. It sounded… confused. “Why?”

Celeste looked at him perplexed, not understanding why he asked his question.

“Why do you stay? You won. Go.”

Celeste shook her head, trying to fight back the emotions. It was as if she was seeing an older version of Cyrus on the ground in front of her. She swallowed in a short-lived attempt to fend off the wavering in her voices and the tears in her eyes.

“Because even if you were not my brother, even if you were just the incarnation of evil—neither of which is true—no one deserves to die alone.”

His eyes widened in surprise but then seemed to soften. A soft smile came across his face.

“There are a lot of Kastori… and humans who would disagree—”

He was interrupted as he coughed violently, rolling to his side. Celeste placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Typhos gasped and looked into her eyes.

“I didn’t think whoever killed me would do this,” he said. “I don’t deserve this. Go back to Monda and stop Vritrus. I don’t deserve anything. Why should I? My mother left me. My father died without telling me. If I didn’t have their love—”

Celeste shook her head.

“That’s where you have it wrong, Typhos. I don’t care if you ‘deserve’ it. You’re my brother and a dying man. Am I going to save you?”

She gulped, refusing to answer her own question.

“I’m going to stay by your side until you die. I need to know if there is anything you want before you go.”

Celeste heard a tremble and looked up. The sphere around them was weakening in step with Typhos’ life. She had to go before he died, she realized. Or…

“No,” he said weakly, but then surprisingly smiled. “I am surprised enough that you… you stayed. I said all would abandon me in the end, yet… you do not. I was not right to assume such fate… but now it is too late.”

He hacked again, and Celeste could sense he didn’t have more than a couple of minutes left. She looked away from her brother as he violently spat up blood and used the time to sense the battle on Monda. Three ships emerged from Vritrus, and the creature no longer seemed alive.

But its body was heading straight for Monda, and its impact would destroy much of the planet, if not all of it.
I have to go. But I can’t leave him here. I’m with him until the end.

“Typhos, you’re coming with me,” Celeste said, putting her hands around him. “We’re going to Monda. I need to save my people.”

“Hah,” Typhos said, hacking. “I’m afraid that for what I have done, it is too late. I saw what you saw… Celeste. Only a spell as powerful as Ultimus can destroy a creature.”

That’s it.

“Typhos… you have wanted the title of savior, right?”

He nodded, but Celeste knew she didn’t have much time.

“Come to Monda. Cast Ultimus with your dying power. Destroy the monster and save us. It is your chance at redemption and your chance to fulfill your role.”

Typhos snorted.

“Nothing can redeem me for what I have done,” he said. “I created that beast. Destroying… it will only… set things back to the beginning.”

“Which is where we need to go,” Celeste said. “The idea of you saving people from death, that’s not salvation. That’s a curse. I don’t want to live forever. I don’t want anyone to live forever. But I do want to keep my world alive for the future, Typhos. You can help me with that. Please!”

Typhos, who could barely move, gave a small smile.

“I cannot… promise anything,” he said. “But teleport me… and we try.”

It was the best Celeste could hope for.

She placed her hands on his hand, feeling his too-real skin for the first time. It felt just like any other Kastori’s.
My brother. Not an enemy in the sky. My brother.

She closed her eyes and teleported them away from the dying protective sphere and back to Monda, just outside the palace. The two were alone with the giant monster in the sky. Celeste shuddered at how close it was and couldn’t imagine that even Ultimus would stop it.

But when she looked back and saw Typhos staggering up, his scarred face now shined upon by light, she saw the determination on his face and felt a trace of hope. He looked at her, struggling to stand, and gave a smile.

“Sister,” Typhos said, the one word that made her eyes well and tears fall. “You have shown me, at least, that one person is capable of loving me and not ever losing hope in me. I can die now in peace. You have given me the peace of mind knowing that… I have family that loves me. I am gone from this universe, having left a trail of anguish and death, much of it related to you… and Cyrus. I am… it is the way I am,” he said weakly, his voice growing coarser by the minute. “Celeste. Cy… rus. I am sorry. Let this be a small… a small help to end my life.”

With that, he closed his eyes and raised his arms.

55

Crystil outran the monster to the atmosphere of Monda, slicing through with her ship intact and the world beneath her saved from a complete death.

But the monster had never stopped descending. Now a slower death would come to Monda, one dominated by the impact from the massive beast. At best, humanity would have to start from scratch, in an era with only the knowledge of technology and not the technology itself. At worst, everything would go extinct.

Ahead of her, she saw the ship of Garrus, about fifteen seconds ahead of her, flying down in the direction of the palace. Beside her, Cyrus continued to spin, not quite entirely out of control but not in control either. She didn’t think Cyrus would survive an impact at the rate he fell but held out hope he could find away.

“Commander, what’s the plan?” Garrus asked.

“Waiting on Cyrus—”

“I’m fine,” he interrupted. “I stopped using my magic. I’ll use it when we get closer to the ground.”

Crystil felt relief but was not satisfied with the answer, suspecting that Cyrus had lied to appease her worries.

“Well, in that case, Garrus, fly. Fly as far away as you can from Capitol City. The monster’s going to crash there, and you won’t survive. If you head for the southern lands, you might get a chance to live.”

“Commander… are you sure?”

Crystil’s throat tightened. The soldier in her told her to stay with her people. But that was suicidal and guaranteed to end in only one way. She could no longer believe in things like “honor” and “self-sacrifice” when they had done everything they could to survive and dying would change nothing. She fought the notion in her head for several seconds before confirming.

“Yes, Garrus. You are honorably discharged from battle and free to go wherever you want. I encourage you to go somewhere where you’ll survive.”

“I…” Garrus said, and he could be heard clearing his throat. “Yes, Crystil. It’s been an honor serving you.”

“The pleasure is mine. Cyrus, you—”

“I’m going to crash land near the temple,” Cyrus said. “I want to be with my Dad when this ends.”

When. Not if. We’re all accepting it in different ways. I guess I should go with him too.

“And you need to fly away, Crystil,” Cyrus said calmly.

“Cyrus?”

“I won’t make it out of here in this ship. I can make sure I don’t die in the crash, but the engines are busted. It won’t fly away. You can still escape.”

Crystil grimaced and bit her lip, fighting back the finality she felt. His ship continued to free fall to the planet. She could see the palace come into view, and if Cyrus were lying, she’d find out. If he wasn’t, she didn’t have time to pick him up and land.

“Understood,” Crystil said quickly. “Love you, Cyrus.”

“Love you too, Crystil,” Cyrus said, complete calm in his voice. “You’re in charge of humanity now.”

Crystil couldn’t respond to that. She had nothing more to say. Instead, she shut off her radio. She didn’t want to hear Garrus’ condolences. She didn’t need to hear any more smart talk from Cyrus. He had said the perfect final words. All she had left to do was hold on to the memory. She shot the ship over the palace, briefly seeing two figures within the walls, and soared away, directing her ship to the southern lands.

A loud beeping came in her ship. She barely noticed it, having enveloped herself in her thoughts of Cyrus.

“Warning. Low fuel levels. Approximately three hundred miles left.”

About ten minutes of flying left. Ten minutes to get as far away from here as I can. Ten minutes to get to a place where I can restart humanity.

Won’t be the first time. I know how this goes. Husband dies in tragedy, I rebuild. At least I know how to do this stupid dance.

She kept flying straight ahead, ignoring the beeping requesting that she return to base. She thought of herself as a coward for a brief period, wondering if what she was doing was right. Everyone in Capitol City would die in a matter of minutes. She would hear it. She’d know when it happened.
Even if I am a coward, you heard your man. You know what you told Garrus. Follow your own advice.

“Approximately two hundred miles of fuel left,” the ship said a couple minutes later.

Crystil couldn’t help herself. Whether by morbid curiosity or because she had to see the end, she swung the ship at just an angle that she could see the monster crash into the planet.

But she saw something unexpected, something extraordinary.

56

Typhos’ whole body shook violently. Celeste came behind and supported him with her magic, holding his body upright and ensuring that he would not lose his concentration. Up above, she heard a violent shaking as the monster began to disintegrate, pieces of it falling from the sky. She struggled to hold Typhos up, for his body shook with such force that it took all of her red magic to keep him upright and alive. He yelled, his final cry of magic, as the creature exploded into thousands of pieces. A ship roared above, and a second came about fifteen seconds later.