[KoJ] Interlude XII: Pre-Confrontation

The moment Orm disappeared over the horizon, Ceph stopped dropping the explosives behind her. Just in case the snake looked her way, she continued running towards Henosis’ border, but with each second, she pulled further away.

It took all her self control not to just turn and flee. Even if it had just been for a short while, being bait for one of those nightmare weapons had been terrifying. While it may have been necessary, should Henosis have thrown a Titan-killer her way, she wouldn’t survive.

The longer she ran, the further her sprint curved away from Orm until she all but fled back to Pact Nation land. Would it work? There were so many things that could go wrong that Ceph was gnawing on the ends of her tentacles as she ran. Henosis might not bomb the snake, or Orm would discover her deception. What if the serpent died to the weapon? Titan-killer might be an exaggerated title, but not even the Inner Circle could survive the blast.

Had she sent Orm to his death?

This wasn’t a mistake. It was the only way to save her nation; her people.

The flash of light was blinding. Ceph shielded her eyes as the horizon became fire. She had expected it, but the energy of the explosion was unbelievable. Especially this close. Immediately, she through herself to the ground, pinning herself to the earth before the blast could reach her.

She braced, but the shockwave never reached her.

Instead, a venomous roar melted her muscles. She had been ready, but the sound shredded all defences. Pain and fury embedded in a hiss so powerful that her body screamed for death if it meant being the recipient of that presence any longer. She felt sick. Her body couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be paste, or ice.

Ceph’s eyes had been stuck on the horizon when Orm’s pressure crushed her, so she had an unbeaten view of the impossible. The shockwave stilled. The cloud of dust behind it frozen like a wall. But it was the rising fireball of immense power that defied nature the most. Even it had stilled. Beneath the fury of the serpent, a Titan-killer’s unrelenting force submitted.

For a moment, Ceph believed time had frozen. The world was eerily still. Then, rocketing out from the kilometres wide ball of fire, was Orm. The serpent was larger than she’d ever seen, and it pierced through the air with all the power and rage of a slighted Titan.

In a frozen world, Orm’s motion wrecked havoc. Unable to handle the giant snake’s immense burden, half of what had been an expanding ball of fire, collapsed in on itself. As Orm cracked eastward like nothing Ceph had ever seen, the beast left a void where not even air could remain.

Nobody had ever seen a Titan in an active battle. They were slumbering giants that rarely moved, and when they did, it was hulking and slow. Even then, they were distant problems. Natural disasters in uninhabited lands. Never had they shown what they were truly capable of. The collapse of the Titan Alps had given them a glimpse of the Titan’s power, but with Orm — not even a Titan — able to pull off such feats, Ceph realised that their most exaggerated imaginations couldn’t come close to reality.

The earth shook. An earthquake comparable to the Collapse shifted the ground beneath Ceph’s inert body. Faults cracked the surface, only resisted by the air itself, which refused to move. The fractures rolled outwards, like an ocean wave beneath the surface, leaving it cracked and broken.

Thrumming thunder hit; a siren to announce the resumption of time.

The crescent ball of plasma exploded. After being frozen in place for a dozen seconds, its eruption came suddenly, and with enough power that it was as if the Titan-killer ignited again. The burning blast shot out in a wide arc. Orm’s pounce left an immense force behind to manifest after the roar’s effect dispersed.

Ceph lay unmoving for a long while as Orm no doubt made mince of the enemy’s defences.

She had succeeded. All her efforts to find the serpent, bring it to the surface, and trick it into unleashing on Henosis had worked. Yet… she did feel victorious.

Guilt and regret consumed her. The pain permeating through the serpent’s roar was stronger than she had imagined. To know it was her fault Orm experienced such agony… she wanted to ignore it. Orm was supposed to be a beast. A monster to throw at their enemies and forget.

But… Orm was more than that.

Despite holding the power of an ancient being, it held a childlike innocence. Everything seemed so curious and new. Willing to return favours without needing to be asked. Its brutality in a fight was anything but naive, yet the respect Orm showed to those weaker than itself was surprising. It was far more than could be expected from any of the races should they achieve the same power the serpent had.

Orm was a beast. A monstrosity beyond what most of her kind could comprehend. Yet it was also a person. He was a person.

A fact that was driven home as a quiet, rolling hiss pierced her heart. Profound sorrow and betrayal intimately settled through the presence. She felt exactly how he felt. And she hated that it was entirely her fault.

He knew. He knew, and given the recent destruction, would be coming for her. Ceph wouldn’t see tomorrow’s sunrise.

She didn’t move. Orm had fulfilled her desires, and now that the pact nations would be safe, she could accept what would happen. Hopefully, her death alone would satisfy Orm. Ceph regret what she did, but to save her people, she would do it again. It was disgusting even to herself that betraying a friend was something she so readily accepted. All she could do was hope that her life could atone for the pain it inflicted.

Ceph laughed, before it collapsed into a scoff as she knew she deserved not even a scrape of joy.

Never would she have expected to have come to consider a snake as a friend. A little brother to show the world to. He probably had a few hundred years on her at the very least, but that’s how he felt to her. If only the world weren’t so cruel; maybe they could could have welcomed him properly into their nations. Now, she doubted Orm would ever trust any of them again.

Ceph rose to kneel in flash-dried mud and cracked earth. Orm would come for her, and she would do her best to apologise before he ate her. It was all she could do.

❖❖❖

Remus, along with his team, stood in an ancient excavated temple in the heart of the Henosis Empire.

A recent shift in workforce had left the place almost empty. While the implications for the war as a whole were worrying, it gave his team the perfect opportunity to infiltrate.

He’d had his reservations about leaving the war as it was, but after what they’d found in Riparia, and now here, he was glad he had. What was the point in winning a war when the world was on the verge of destruction, after all.

The Anatla were close. His old friend Solon, a riparian, had calculated the barrier between realities to collapse within the year if nothing was done.

“I recognise this inscription,” the young áed said. Her flames had spread through the carefully constructed lines that spread through the building. “Its the same structure as what Henosis has been using in their bombs! This is where they learnt to trigger the cascading plasma hyle reaction.”

“There’s no Anatla bridge here,” Leal said. The tall ursu sat next to the half-formed fire elemental and copied the inscription to a notebook. “And yet there are so many mentions of them. It can’t be like the eastern island, where the ancient peoples foolishly tried to use an Analta, but it also isn’t designed to be a barrier like any of the other places we’ve been. Could this be a weapon designed to fight them?”

“It’s hard to imagine. Even if this inscription could melt continents back when it was unbroken, I can’t imagine it would be enough to kill an Anatla.” Solvei’s voice originated from the lines of inscription as much as it did from her body.

Remus watched over the two as they decoded what intent might be hidden by the ancient walls. Behind him, he heard a clatter and a groan. Bunny was all too happy to play with the guards that found them after being away from a fight for more than a month. She never had been one to like being constrained, and remaining hidden in the Empire’s backyard meant doing exactly that.

His mind was still on the plaque beneath a statue at the entrance to the underground temple. Time had eroded the stone enough that the visage was indistinguishable. It looked like an albanic to most, but there had been signs that indicated an áed instead. Solvei hadn’t noticed it, and he wasn’t sure if he should mention it.

The first line was worn down except for a mention of ‘eternal protection’, but the next passage had been clear. More than that; it had been the only thing undamaged by time.

‘Beneath the moon lies the entrance to her tomb; Akkorakamui and Fenghuang’s ultimate solution to save the world from Armageddon. Shall it never be necessary.’

This was their first lead for something that was any more than a delaying barrier. They’d left the task of recreating the ancient barrier with the inscription professionals of Riparia, but not even they believed they could touch such an intricate work without a generation of effort.

Solvei gasped suddenly. Before Remus could do anything for her, the girl’s physical form dispersed. Her flames spread through the inscription, burning brighter. Her casual yellow flames shone white and shimmered before taking on a blue hue that scorched his skin.

Leal’s fur ignited, but she paid no mind to herself. “Solvei?”

This was already beyond what Remus knew Solvei was capable, and he could feel her heating up more. Grabbing the ursu almost double his own height, he called for the rest of the team to leave. Solvei was strong, so he could only hope she’d be fine.

They gained distance, and the earth over the subterranean temple burst with an inferno of black flames that lasted an instant before collapsing in on themselves. The heat never diminished. Plasma formed, much like the Titan-killers Henosis had been utilising, except this didn’t expand. It stayed steady and controlled.

A few seconds passed before the immense heat died and the temple was left as nothing more then a vaporised pit. Not so much as magma remained. Solvei strode out of the debris. But the first thing Remus noticed was the awed expression on her face. Not worry or guilt at accidentally destroying what they needed as he would have expected from the girl.

“I spoke to Ember.” Her voice was airy, as if she didn’t believe it herself. “She was an echo, I think. But I talked to the Eldest Ember.”

Remus glanced to the wreckage. Solvei’s control was good, but not so much to protect them from temperatures at such extremes. So the áed’s legendary figure was real? Someone who amounted to the realm of gods had a part of herself left in the temple that claimed to have a way to stop Armageddon?

“What did-” he was interrupted by the crushing weight of a Titanic roar. The fury so tangible that Remus felt instinctual fear like he hadn’t in years.

“I’m going,” Solvei said, and had shifted into a flaming bird in an instant.

With great effort, Remus garnered control over his tentacles again, and grabbed her before she could fly off. “You felt that presence. Why?” He had a hunch he knew, but that snake hadn’t been anywhere near as powerful as that roar indicated.

“It’s a Titan.” Solvei looked off in the distance. “Eldest Ember said to trust the Titans. They protect our world against the Anatla.” She paused. “I need to speak to one.”

“That was not the presence of a creature willing to communicate,” he urged. “Don’t.”

She narrowed her eyes. “We don’t have the luxury for safety anymore, Remus. If I can learn anything that can stop Armageddon, I will.” And with that, she piercing through the air faster than any of them could keep up.

Remus sighed. Maybe she was right that their next option was to try and speak with a Titan — as impossible as that seemed — but this was a mistake. Whatever roared was enraged. It was more likely to destroy anything in its way than listen, even if Solvei was right and the Titans could be trusted.

“Come on,” he called the rest of the team. “I’m not going to leave her alone.”

“So, no more espionage?” The tall albanic fashioned her new twin blades excitedly.

He caught Grímr rolling his eyes, but answered anyway. “Yes Bunny, no more hiding.”

❖❖❖

If you haven't read Young Flame, then just an FYI: Solvei is the protag of that story. this happens a little after where that story hiatused.

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