Chapter 80


    An Unexpected Battle/Part Three


    Citrinitas/ The Yellow King


    Mesvres. France.


    The stolen vehicle, in which Stan and Rum were traveling, left behind the menhirs of the Broye Natural Park and stopped in a ghost town called Mesvres, only seven kilometers away from the point where it had stopped previously.


    The road stretched out before them, like a winding thread of destroyed asphalt, lost in the gloom of the misty morning. Although it was getting clearer, the sky was still cloudy and foggy in those parts.


    Stan and Rum should have gone much farther, but Rum had decided to pull over and take a break. Stan wasn''t feeling well and his temperature had risen, since he had said he heard that strange sound that Rum couldn''t hear at all.


    She had been checking him through the Neurowire system and the medical nanocapsules in his bloodstream, but there was nothing abnormal. The only strange thing were those dark colored cells, which were the ones that allowed Stan to have the ability to shape-shift, but they were peculiar to his condition.


    So it was better to wait a little and see if he felt a little better. Perhaps it was nothing more than an after effect of the Neurowire enhancements inserted by Janus, or perhaps the pressures of the last few days had built up, although she didn''t think it was likely. In the worst case scenario she would have to find a doctor from the underworld to check her companion, as soon as they reached the first city and make use of the underground network that existed in that world.


    Rum looked out the window at the soft mist that covered the abandoned town, as well as the nearby hills. Another place that nature had been devouring over the years.


    She turned to Stan who had reclined the passenger seat. “And? How are you feeling?”


    “Same as five minutes ago… but I''m a little better now. Let''s wait a few more minutes and keep driving, we''d better get away,” Stan replied, with his face half covered by one arm.


    Rum smiled. “Maybe you just need to.…”


    “Uh?” Stan uncovered his face and looked sideways at her. Rum had a smirk on her face and gave him an obscene gesture while waving a hand. Stan clicked his tongue. “Leave me alone…”


    “Just a suggestion,” Rum replied, with a shrug.


    She was worried. It wasn''t the first time she''d seen Stan sick, but it was the first time it had happened after a job. At least she was trying to lighten the mood in the car, if only with a joke. But the behavior he had been exhibiting previously was worrying her.


    Stan knew that and was trying to relax her by telling her that she should drive. A little headache and fever was nothing to worry about, but that feeling he''d had, when he''d heard that flute-like sound, left him with a pretty horrible sensation in his body. He didn''t know why, but he didn''t like it at all.


    A few minutes passed in silence until Stan spoke. “Let''s continue, I''m better now.”


    Rum, through her Neurowire back door, checked. Liar, she thought to herself. The temperature was the same, but it was true. Better keep going. If the break hadn''t worked out it was better to stop at the first town that had underworld services for people like them.


    Rum put her hands on the steering wheel, when they both froze in surprise.


    A piercing bestial howl broke the silence and chilled their blood.


    “What the fuck?” mumbled Rum, turning around and looking into the rear window, Stan immediately imitated her. The sound was coming from behind them.


    Out of the fog, they saw some kind of black smoke coming from behind them and spreading rapidly.


    They could not know that the smoke was coming from several tens of kilometers away. It had moved at almost the speed of sound from Lake Lemac in their direction. It was much larger in its origin, but had been destroyed in part thanks to the quick intervention of a certain fey who had burned most of the threat with a lightning bolt. Even so, a small part had managed to escape and was now behind them, as if they had a sort of compass of where to go.


    Out of the smoke, Stan and Rum saw enormous creatures materialize, that none of them had ever seen before, followed by a torrent of shadows that hovered over them. Some crossed over the top of the vehicle and materialized fully twenty meters away, while the others were behind them. There were about eight in all, four to the rear and four to the front.


    They were surrounded.


    They didn''t know what those things were and those strange appendages with blades on their backs, which moved as if they were some kind of razor. Their yellow eyes glowed with an unnatural light, as they slowly approached over the car, filling the air with a cacophony of screeching. They seemed to have no mouth at times, but then sharp teeth appeared, opening and closing as they emitted those screeching sounds.


    Rum could see that the sound was not coming from their mouths. In the horned head with elastic skin there seemed to be a hole that reminded her of the gills of sharks, but the slits seemed to move and vibrate when they emitted those sounds.


    Stan felt his pulse quicken at that moment. There was something too strange about it all.


    “What the hell is that?” Rum asked.


    “Don''t ask me. You chose the route. Did you wander into some exogenous creature reserve?”


    “You think I''m such an idiot?! There was no sign.”


    “Maybe that''s why everything is so deserted?”


    “Impossible, I haven''t seen that kind of creature in any catalog.”


    Those things were getting closer and closer.


    “You''ve got to be kidding me...” said Rum, with a nervous smile on her face.


    “Let''s get the hell out of here!” Stan turned his head, terror transforming his voice into a broken whisper. “Step on it!”


    “You don''t need to tell me!” shouted Rum and set off, even if she had to run over those things.


    But, before Rum could get away, a deafening thud resounded as a creature slammed into the side of the vehicle. One of the four that were behind had slid to the right side and had decided to attack from that side with a lunge.


    The glass shattered in several places and the bodywork deformed like paper as it absorbed the blow under the force of that monster. The car that had been set in motion spun out of control, spinning in a whirlwind of metal and despair, until it finally stopped in a deafening roar, crashing into an old metal fence.


    Both were stunned, but barely had time to recover when they saw what was coming at them. All those things were slowly making their way towards the vehicle, with the calmness of one who has secured their prey.


    It was a matter of seconds before their lives would be snuffed out by those things that had emerged from the fog.


    On impulse Stan grabbed Rum''s hand and they both prepared for the worst.


    Darkness descended on the vehicle. But that darkness did not seem to come from the creatures attacking the vehicle and opening the metal to devour them.


    The creatures never touched the vehicle.


    On the contrary, a black whirlwind had arisen around the vehicle that blew the creatures all over the place, but left the vehicle intact.


    “W-what is that?” Rum asked, with a tremor in her voice.


    The stunned creatures had crashed into the dilapidated buildings and houses, as well as the trees sprouting from what had once been manicured gardens. The creatures began to get up, but they shared the same surprise as Stan and Rum.


    In front of the car that had stopped was a huge creature that folded its wings, darker black than night.


    Neither Stan nor Rum had ever seen it, but Stan sensed that the thing was not there to harm them. On the contrary, it seemed to have protected the car from the impending attack. Although it could well be that it was protecting its prey from being devoured by the other creatures.


    Rum, on the other hand, felt a terror invade her when that new creature turned and looked at the vehicle. It had a head without a neck and two huge red eyes that contrasted with the gray landscape of the place.


    It looked like some kind of owl, or a moth, perhaps?


    The creatures finally recovered and began a new attack. The red-eyed creature finally moved. The combat between that red-eyed shadow and the creatures began in a display of chaos and terror, a macabre and bestial ballet that seemed more like the fury of a gale.


    The red-eyed creature had spread wings that were barely seen for a tenth of a second, before the whole place was invaded by that black gale that attacked the other creatures on the ground without mercy. The wings seemed to vibrate and change direction, as if it were a hummingbird, but of an enormous size. In its comings and goings it left a ghostly trail behind it, which was precisely its residual image, as if even the very fabric of reality could not fully grasp the speed with which it was moving.


    The monsters, on the other hand, were not far behind and split up intelligently to try to attack from multiple points. But that was to no avail and they slowly began to fall and Stan and Rum saw one dissolve into thin air as it was impaled by some sort of claws. That red-eyed creature must have been closer to some kind of owl, because it was attacking with legs that looked like some kind of unknown bird.


    It was not an insect at all.


    As the battle raged around him, Stan felt his mind slip back to a childhood memory. A dark day where he had almost been killed by bullies who had kicked him to death. In that instant he had passed out in the street, but before he fell unconscious something had attached itself to his body. A dark, slimy thing that had changed his life forever.


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    Stan''s heart pounded, with a mixture of fear and longing. Something inside him was stirring. He knew it. He sensed it.


    He glanced sideways and time seemed to stand still as he saw what was coming.


    As the attack of that red-eyed creature continued against the others, one had separated and returned to the original target.


    They.


    Out of the corner of his eye Stan saw the creature approaching the side Rum was occupying. One second and she would be eaten. He saw the head without a mouth and how suddenly where there was nothing there appeared sharp teeth and a hole that could easily swallow a human head in one bite.


    Do you wish to accept what is inside you?


    Stan for a split second relived the horror of his childhood. He saw that slimy black thing like a hand approaching his body.


    Do you wish to accept what is inside you?


    The answer burst from his lips, an almost inaudible whisper: “Yes.”


    At that moment, the darkness was unleashed inside him.


    Something was flowing through those dark cells that lived in his body, vibrating every fiber of his being, transforming his essence into something beyond human.


    Stan felt that something was moving through every muscle and fiber of his body. And he couldn''t explain it, but he knew that whatever it was, it was externalizing itself out of him. He didn''t know what it was, but he knew it was too late to take it back.


    He knew. Yes, he knew it since he was a teenager. That thing that had given him a kind of artificial thelesis to transform his body had never been what it seemed.


    He had never said so, because deep down he had always been afraid that he would end up turning into a lab rat. The medical examinations had discovered nothing and there had been no further investigation. That he was a minor had protected him, but that changed when he was blamed for something he had not done. Child protection laws did not apply in the state where he lived if murder was involved.


    A part of him had always known that the thing that had invaded his being was always alert. He couldn''t tell what it was, but he knew it was as alive as he was. His life had changed the day it had invaded his body and even, on more than one occasion, Stan had woken up in places he didn''t remember going, but he knew that thing was the culprit even though he couldn''t explain why he knew.


    And whatever it was, he had now agreed to let it out. Whatever it was, he had waited so many years to ask at the right time if he wanted to accept it in all its fullness.


    If it could save Rum, so be it.


    Rum glanced sideways at the side Stan was looking at, she had seen his terrified face and knew that something was approaching from that side near her.


    Her eyes never landed on the creature. Instead, something yellow flashed across her vision with lightning speed.


    What was left of the glass in the driver side was ejected outward and the creature that was going to attack them was stabbed in the shoulder by something and was thrown back several meters.


    It was a kind of yellow-colored thorn.


    That thorn had sprouted from Stan''s hand, where it had opened a vise-like suction cup, and had passed just a few centimeters from Rum''s nose. All around the interior space of the car there was a yellow substance like a kind of fine sand swirling near where Stan had been.


    She swallowed and looked at her partner.


    What she found beside her filled her with a dread she had never felt before. Stan had disappeared. In his place now stood a hooded man wearing a ragged, old yellow cloak. How had it appeared? The cloak moved unnaturally, almost as if the cloth were alive. What had been Stan''s hand was now a black hand with elongated fingers and a yellow suction cup on the palm through which he had shot that thorn of at least thirty-five centimeters.


    Trembling, Rum looked up into the hood and there she found a face that looked like Stan''s, but completely black. A black like she had never seen before. Opaque, but with human features. It almost looked more like a kind of mask.


    The one that looked like Stan still had his hand up, but he quickly lowered it.


    “Stay in here,” said a thick, dry voice that sounded little or nothing like Stan. It was him. But what was that transformation? She had never seen such a shape-shifting transformation before. Where had he gotten it from?


    There was something horrible about it. Something she couldn''t explain, but it terrified her.


    But at the same time he was still Stan.


    The new Stan after that order got out of the vehicle and that creature that he had repelled launched a new attack towards him, jumping over the car.


    Rum saw how Stan dodged it and how that mysterious fabric that seemed to have a life of its own moved with an incredible lightness around him. Stan, on the other hand, was moving strangely. He had dodged the creature. Then he had leaped into the air and with one kick sent it flying. He was agile, but the movements were much faster than normal Stan. Plus that yellow cloak should have been a hindrance to such movements.


    Another one of those creatures had approached from the side, but before it could reach him Stan lunged at it and raised another hand and a new yellow thorn shot out like a projectile straight at the creature''s head. The monster vanished in the air in wisps of black smoke, while the other one returned to the attack.


    Rum did not understand what was happening. Between the red-eyed monster''s fight and Stan''s fight against the creatures, she didn''t know which was stranger.


    Finally in a new attack the creature tried to strike him, but Stan raised both hands and shot two thorns from his hands that hit the target of the creature''s blade-like appendages and were ripped off and vanished. Then, as the attack continued, he took a leap into a nearby tree and sent the creature to the ground.


    He straddled the beast''s chest while with his hands he held those huge arms against the ground. Two thorns shot out of his hands and the arms were stuck to the ground as they were pierced from side to side. Stan then took the creature''s huge head and put it in front of his face.


    Rum, from her vantage point, could not see Stan''s face. The position of the hood covered his entire face and so she did not get to hear what he said. A voice, which seemed to have nothing to do with Stan''s, spoke to the creature while holding his head tightly.


    “Why don''t you look at what''s in the heart of a black star?”


    From Rum''s vision she saw the creature struggle in a manner as if in pain. She didn''t know what Stan was doing to it, but it was holding its head tightly. The creature was debating madly, while it seemed to be suffering something that was impossible to describe.


    It was seeing something Rum could not. Perhaps something that no one should ever see.


    It struggled and struggled with maddening spasms until at one point it stopped. Then it disappeared into smoke. Only Stan was left in place and he slowly rose to his feet.


    He brought a hand to his hood and removed it.


    Her partner''s face had returned. Not black, but the slightly tanned color he always had. Rum was surprised to see that his face was not as sunken in as usual with those protruding cheekbones. Stan''s face looked tired and it was hard to breathe, but he looked much healthier. He looked back at the vehicle and his eyes met Rum''s.


    Several meters away, the red-eyed creature continued its fight against the remaining monsters, of which there were only two. One was caught in its claws and crushed to the ground, where it vanished, while the other tried to attack from behind. But the creature disappeared in a new windstorm and was located behind the monster. Rum didn''t get to see how it did it, but in less than a blink of an eye she saw the creature split into two halves that then vanished.


    There was none left.


    The red-eyed creature flapped its wings again as if they were vibrating and rose several meters above the ground.


    It was all over.


    However, the battle had taken its toll. Stan, exhausted and overwhelmed by the magnitude of his own strength, fell to the ground, unconscious. Rum got out of the car without worrying about being attacked by the red-eyed creature and ran to where Stan was.


    She was surprised to see how that kind of hooded cloak had begun to retract little by little. It didn''t take more than a few seconds to disappear completely. Rum could see that the fabric, although it had been externalized, was now hiding underneath the clothes Stan was wearing. The fine sand floating around had disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived.


    His clothes were intact and there was no sign of where all that yellow cloth had gone.


    Rum knelt down and tried to hold him, while checking the vital signs of her friend and fellow adventurer for so many years.


    He was alive.


    Rum looked up.


    Above the trees that black creature with red eyes was taking flight.


    Almost as if it had been waiting for Rum to look at her, she felt those red eyes on her and Stan.


    Now that the other attacking creatures had disappeared, she didn''t know what to expect from all that had happened in just minutes.


    That monster finally looked away and disappeared from sight in a dark gale that violently rocked the surrounding trees.


    Rum didn''t know what exactly had just happened to Stan, but it was clear to her that the red-eyed thing had saved them from being eaten by the other creatures.


    Whatever it was, Rum looked at the broken down vehicle.


    She began to drag Stan towards the vehicle with effort. They would have to make a run for it if it still worked and change vehicles at the first opportunity.


    And then run away. Lest that thing change its mind and come back for them.


    Rum judged that they both had more than enough adventures between the UK, France, Switzerland and Italy.


    Just like that creature, it was time to take flight with the fortune they now had.


    ***


    Abandoned facilities of the former LHC Point 3, Crozet. France.


    No vehicles crossed the deserted road of Chem. de la Pièce, wet by the soft drizzle.


    In the middle of the street, in front of some abandoned facilities and houses, there was no one at that moment.


    A bang was heard from the old manhole cover in the middle of the street. After the blow the cover slid a few centimeters and for a few seconds it remained still. After a few seconds of waiting, the lid came off completely and out of the hole emerged half of a pink head with green eyes that looked in all directions.


    When she was sure that no one would be there she finally emerged from the hole and put the lid back in place. She had made it. EVE had escaped by taking another path out of the old hadron accelerator.


    The air felt cold and thick, heavy with the weight of the battle she had just left. The young fey''s white armor reflected the pale light of the gray day, like a ghostly shadow amidst the darkness. Her breaths were rapid, but controlled, as her hands, covered by metal gloves shook off the dirt.


    The wind blew faintly, bringing with it the smell of damp earth and burnt metal, a mixture she recognized well. The smell of battle. Of the escape.


    She looked to the southeast where, barely five kilometers away, clouds and smoke columns could be seen. It was the place where the battle of Meyrin had taken place.


    But she had escaped. And even though she had escaped, she felt a strange feeling inside her. As if something was calling her in the northeast direction. There was something in that direction that bothered her but she couldn''t figure out what it was. She could only see the dark clouds that hid a horizon with a layer of fog that extended throughout that region.


    She was alone. Or at least, that''s what she wanted to think. She knew she could not trust herself. She knew that there were still traces of her pursuers, that the battle was not over. But now, in this small chink of silence, her mind was clear. She had to leave. Quickly. Without looking back.


    With a swift movement, she glanced down the road that stretched before her, scanning the empty streets like a maze.


    At that moment a wind picked up around her and she looked up.


    A small-sized craft was disabling an optical cloak and descending.


    She recognized the model. It was part of the fast craft marketed by BW Inc., the company owned by Benjamin Bloodworth.


    [I came to pick you up,] said a voice in her mind and it calmed her. It was a voice she knew.


    The self-crewed craft had descended to a position in the middle of the street.


    EVE took a deep breath. At that moment, although still wounded, she felt freer than ever. At last all that madness was over and she could go home.


    She clenched her fists in a threatening gesture and gave an evil grin.


    It was better that Benjamin had answers for her.