Chapter 82


    An Unexpected Battle/ Final Part


    In Another Time and Place


    Lugrin, Lake Lemac. France.


    The cold, biting wind whipped at Mai''s face, as she flew through the air, approaching the vast lake.


    The waters, normally calm, were agitated by the violent airstreams that preceded the storm that lashed the sky. In the distance, the sphere hovered suspended like the eye of a giant, looking in all directions, water, land and air, like a sinister presence waiting for the right moment to strike. On the surface of the water, the waves began to break, as if something invisible was pushing them.


    From her height as she approached over the eight hundred meters of Lugrin, Mai watched in horror the chaos unfolding on the land at the shores of the lake. The battle that had begun just minutes before was reaching its climax, but the worst was yet to come if she didn''t hurry.


    She could see the lightning bolts on the ground from Thor''s strikes, as well as the blasts of lightning coming out of the clouds from Rein''s attacks. It was a good strategy, since Rein could handle herself better from the air, while Thor had always concentrated more on contact techniques and ground discharges were his specialty, creating shockwaves that blew away all creatures that tried to approach.


    Because of the fog she could barely see in the distance, but she thought she could make out a thin line moving at high speed a little further to the shore in the east and that must be Noki. She knew that Mii was also around, but perhaps she was in the area closer to the trees and therefore Mai could not see where she was.


    The soldiers'' gunfire created beams of light that flickered. She didn''t know how many casualties there would have been, but it could have been a worse disaster if Rein and the others hadn''t been there at the right time. She could only hope that if there were casualties it was that everyone present had a copy that could summon consciousness in the event of death.


    A buzzing sound was heard and Mai concentrated on the sphere. That thing was completely different from other anomalies. It indeed looked like an eye with a black sclera and a yellow pupil.


    The sphere, as if awakened by her presence, began to move slowly. First there was an imperceptible tremor in the air, then a distortion in the form of new thick discharges of black smoke all around. It reminded Mai of a sun, but emitting a coronary mass of black plasma. Something inside the sphere came to life in that yellow pupil that observed everything. And just as Mai focused her gaze on it, a ring of black smoke began to form, expanding at great speed from the core of the sphere, a dark vortex taking shape as it grew in the direction of where Mai was standing.


    The wisps spread into the atmosphere, transforming into amorphous humanoid beings that emerged from the smoke. They were fluctuating shadows of dark color, ghostly figures that from a distance writhed, faceless and without defined outline, but still seemed full of a dark essence and alien to the known world.


    That discharge had been directed in her direction, as if it had a will. Creatures emerged from the ring, their bodies part ethereal yet part dense, their presence palpable, as if the very laws of nature were being broken. They were completely different from those that moved on the ground, for they moved through the air as if they were in their element.


    They looked like corpses that had had their lower parts removed and were composed of that black smoke. Ghosts, Mai thought. They were ghosts of a black color.


    Mai swallowed hard, a knot in her stomach. It wasn''t just the sphere that terrified her, it was what it meant.


    Ants. To Azusa those things were just ants.


    Mai, focus. Azusa''s voice echoed in mind, calm but with a palpable urgency. Everything depends on you now.


    With an effort, Mai pushed away the fear and fixed her gaze on the center of the sphere. Standing suspended in the air, she lifted her bow in a fluid, calculated motion, every muscle in her body tensing in rhythm with the wind. She had stopped moving her wings but was relying on the turtle backpack system to keep her floating in the air. Azusa would no longer be able to hold her.


    The plan was simple: shoot the arrow directly into the heart of the sphere. A single shot and everything would be solved. At least, that was what Azusa had said and what Mai had always done. But what she saw before her was much more complicated.


    The creatures, like specters, began to glide toward her. She would not have time. As they advanced, the air around them seemed to grow thicker, as if space itself was twisting in their wake. There was no longer time for hesitation. She had to act.


    But then, the sphere reacted. As if it had sensed her presence, as if a dark consciousness had awakened, a ring of black mist began to form from its core, rapidly spiraling around the surface and then spreading out across the place. And from there, more of those creatures formed in the air.


    Watch out! Azusa exclaimed, but the warning came too late.


    Mai was thrown by a sudden gust of wind that caused her to lose her balance.


    Two French air fighters had just passed close to her and were heading for the sphere. Those ships must have been reinforcements and beyond she could see four others that were firing barrages at those ring formations as they danced far enough away from the sphere. Making sure that those new enemies did not reach them.


    The creatures began to hurl themselves at Mai. A high pitched whirring sound filled the air, as one of them, in the form of a light mass first, condensed into something more solid in the air and crashed into her small body.


    Upon impact, the creature tried to grab her with its long-fingered hands. Mai, now that she was facing it, looked to her like some kind of mummy whose bandages had been removed. A slightly humanoid form with parched skin and no eyes. Its mouth had only appeared when it approached her. She used the bow to block the creature and pulled off that part of it that was more solid. The impact knocked Mai back in the air, briefly losing control, but she regained stability instantly. It was not enough. She could not lose control at that moment.


    With a thought Mai made sharp blades appear on the outer parts of the bow''s body. The blades were almost transparent and of a green color, but when they touched the creature they sliced it and the part that was more consistent melted into that black smoke.


    “BPR-14!” Mai shouted.


    Mai held the bow tightly in her left hand, but in her right hand appeared a plasma rifle summoned from her turtle backpack. She had seen from the transmissions and the battle on the ground that those seemed to be the weapons that worked. She didn''t know what effect they could have on those creatures that had such a strange consistency but it was better than nothing. It was true that plasma could indeed be found in what was called ghostly manifestations, but she could not say with certainty that it was the same with those creatures.


    When shooting the first one that had approached Mai could see that the shot was as if it absorbed the creature inside and then dissolved. She could take out a few of them with a single shot, but those creatures were different from the surface ones. Much weaker, but they countered that by sheer numbers.


    They were a swarm and it was a matter of seconds or a minute before they completely overwhelmed Mai.


    From their elevated position a black spot passed close to Mai, a figure that had approached rapidly, streaking through the air with the force of a comet. It had struck down with its entrance a torrent of those creatures that scattered in confusion at the strange entrance. The onslaught came to a screeching halt a hundred meters away from Mai.


    Black armor she knew well.


    Help is here, Azusa said, her tone relieved.


    “Shin?” Mai asked. He was the help? How had he arrived so quickly?


    Beyond the questions Mai had, it was Shin''s movements that surprised her. He was in his armor, but surrounded by that cloud of particles around him. Shin then launched another attack in her direction.


    “Are you okay?!” Was what he asked when he passed by her with lightning speed. What were those movements? He was darting like a cannonball at those creatures, but he seemed to have trouble stopping in mid-air to change direction. It almost gave her the feeling that he was sliding through the air. That couldn''t be because of the backpack''s autonomous flight system. It felt different and the armor was much denser.


    “I''m... fine.” Mai let out without stopping firing, not quite understanding what had happened to him.


    Shin on the other hand had realized something. During his flight towards the place he had felt more and more pain in his eye. It was as if it was stinging and at the same time burning, as if someone had peppered it. But the curious thing was that it was only in his left eye. The eye that had no vision was fine, even though it was useless in that situation.


    From a distance he had seen the sphere and for some reason he felt a dread within himself that he could not explain. He was afraid to look at it, but at the same time he could not shake off a sense of familiarity. Had he seen it before? It was not like what he had witnessed with Azusa. It was different. In those memories of an erased time he had not felt terror or anything like that. Just the feeling of being in front of an anomaly. At that time he had felt almost hope when he had thrown himself out of the plane.


    The opposite of what was in front of him.


    That thing might have a simple shape, but it terrified him for some reason.


    Could it be that it was something he had seen prior to his arrival on earth and his body remembered it even though he had no memory of it?


    Whatever it was, he did not have the luxury at that moment to ask himself questions about that thing. He only knew that Mai was with her bow on a mission to close that distortion. And for that he had to buy the necessary seconds for her to be able to shoot. He had seen the lightning from the sky and the fight on the surface from the corner of his eye, but he had recognized those discharges. He didn''t know when, or why, but Rein was there with Thor.


    Shin pounced on the creatures with the ferocity of a predator. With his onslaught he drew almost a ring around Mai cutting through the creatures that seemed to become more physical before him. Then those that tried to attack him disintegrated on contact, bursting into smoke and dark particles, as if the black metal of his armor was capable of coagulating first and then dissolving any vestige of darkness. The creatures, confused, momentarily dispersed at his appearance.


    But the attack was unstoppable. More and more wisps of smoke billowed from the ring, and the creatures began to surround them both, lashing out with seemingly endless speed. The air was now a chaos of shadows, flashes of light and electricity. At that moment, the sky lit up with a burst of lightning from the clouds that traced a circle around Mai and Shin.


    Rein had reached them.


    “''Dad!” shouted Rein heading towards Shin. “I''ll cover this side. You take the other!”


    Shin looked sideways at Rein and nodded. He knew Rein could predict what was going on and they had been waiting for the moment for Mai to arrive. It was lucky she had her bow at the moment she needed it.


    Rein''s figure gave off electricity from her body, and with a sweeping gesture of her hands and waving her tail, an electrical discharge swept through the air, striking the approaching creatures. The smoke rings began to burn, as if the electricity itself was burning them. Each bolt of lightning pierced the air, disintegrating the shadows before they could get any closer.


    “Mai! If you''re going to shoot, this is the time!” the voice of Rein came urgently, cutting through the noise of battle.


    Mai, without hesitation, dropped the plasma rifle that disappeared from her hand and raised the bow steadily.


    She had been practicing over the years and now the arrow took no more than half a second to materialize from between her fingers. She aligned the arrow towards its target with the center of the sphere, which still hovered motionless. The wind was blowing hard, shaking her braid, but she did not hesitate. Creatures were dissolving around her with Rein and Shin''s combined attacks, but more kept emerging, and the clock was ticking. She could not fail.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    This is goodbye then, Mai thought.


    Yes, little one, replied Azusa. Now get ready.


    Mai suddenly felt her chest burning. It was the same feeling as when she had met Azusa, but different at the same time.


    Before her eyes she saw how the arrow in the bow grew. It had reached a length of about five meters in less than a second.


    It has to be a different arrow. This is not like other times, Azusa told her and the arrow still grew about two more meters. Mai couldn''t ask questions but that was no longer an arrow, it was as if she was shooting a thin spear from her bow.


    With a deep sigh, she drew the bowstring taut. The arrow shone with a light of its own, absorbing the energy Azusa released through Mai. The lightning from the clouds sizzling around them seemed to make it glow even brighter.


    Mai looked up at the target, focusing all her concentration. With a gasp, she tightened her grip on the arrow, aiming it at the sphere with the strength of her whole being, of all her hope.


    The air instantly became tense and, for a brief moment, everything seemed to stop.


    Mai felt time stretch as, with a shuddering breath, she released the arrow. The air around her seemed to have stopped. The bowstring vibrated briefly in her hands, and for a second, the world seemed to succumb to an absolute frozen silence.


    Mai''s mind went blank and her whole mind was invaded by a space of crystals that stretched to infinity.


    It was the final farewell. A moment of time dilating inside her mind for Azusa.


    “I won''t see you again, right? There''s no way?” Mai asked.


    The voice echoed in that crystal space. “You can always see me again. I am in your memories now and inside your body you will always have a part of me.”


    Mai nodded inwardly.


    “Thank you for giving me a purpose, little one.” Mai felt the voice lose pitch, as if that arrow was pulling Azusa away from Mai, but the voice continued. “Be free of the chains that bound you these past one hundred and twenty years. Let yourself be happy for once. You never committed any crime. You simply made the decision that the world needed most, even though it was not what everyone wanted.”


    Mai gave a weak smile and nodded. As she felt a memory of something distant pop into her mind. The memory of a week stopped in year five of the new era, but which to the occult world had gone by another name.


    Mai lifted her face and looked at the infinite landscape. “Can''t you tell me what this is about?”


    “In this space inside your mind I could. But I don''t want to.”


    “Even if the same thing happens in the future?”


    “It won''t happen. Not here. This is an enemy you can face, but a war no one can win. The scales are very different.”


    “Do what you can, with the tools you got...in the time you have.”


    “Exactly.”


    “Not even a clue?”


    “You already have all the clues. Just know that it''s going to be all right and whatever has to happen, will happen.”


    “Can I ask you one last favor?”


    Azusa took a few seconds to answer. That was not in her memories of the future. It must have been small details that had escaped her. As her body grew older Azusa had been able to see that certain parts of her memories had not appeared in her past. Although that could well be an effect of the age she carried in her body. In biological and terrestrial terms her age was an abyss impossible to comprehend.


    But she still answered. “You can.”


    “You never showed me your true form. The one you had before this one. The form you were born with.”


    “You won''t find it pleasing. That''s why I never showed it to you.”


    Mai denied with a quiet gesture. “I want to see you, if only for the first and last time.”


    In that space Mai saw how in front of her a form began to materialize and gradually took a more physical form.


    Mai looked at the form in front of her. It was much taller, at least more than three meters high. Maybe that was the reason why Azusa had always called her little.


    It had a head with three green eyes. Under those eyes it had thin tentacles that moved with slow movements, and on top of the head it had a series of four thin extremities almost like a kind of antennae. The head ended in a very elongated neck. It had two elongated appendages on its side that ended in pincers. Behind the head a fourth appendage ended in four trumpet-like mouths. The four limbs had a great freedom of movement and Mai did not know exactly how the inner anatomy of those appendages could move like that. Those four upper parts were joined to a conical body that widened towards the lower part.


    The presence could have terrified anyone who encountered it. But Mai at the sight simply smiled.


    “So this is what you look like.”


    “I left this form when I became an entity between two dimesions, but yes. This is the form I was born with on this planet. Although my race had another form before I came to earth, I was born here. This is the real me.”


    Mai smiled at her and then extended her arm with her hand clenched into a fist.


    “What?” Azusa asked in confusion. She hadn''t seen that in her memories. It was simply something that had escaped her memories. In the big picture, it might not mean much, but to both of them there at that moment it meant the bond that had united them.


    “You know what this means, don''t you?” Mai asked.


    Azusa raised one of her pincers and closed it and touched Mai''s fist. “Always so demonstrative,” Azusa said with a gesture that sounded almost as if she was sighing.


    “Thank you for everything, my friend.”


    She understood the gesture. She had seen it throughout history and Mai had made that gesture many times with her classmates when she was half human half fey and later with friends, also with Shin in the last few months, when they were on a mission. A simple gesture that could be interpreted in many ways depending on the context. A greeting, a farewell, but at the same time a gesture that could go beyond that. Yes, Azusa understood. At that moment it could mean many things. A goodbye, good job or maybe a thank you, or even all of those at the same time.


    Just as Mai had said. Thank you for standing by my side. Thank you for saving the world. Thank you for being a friend. Thank you for saving my life. Thank you for everything.


    Azusa understood. But a part of her felt guilty too. After all, she had watched her suffer until the time was right.


    In the context of her purpose she could understand it, but that didn''t mean it didn''t hurt. Yet there was that girl smiling at her and thanking her.


    Azusa blinked and slowly pulled her pincer away from Mai''s fist.


    “Goodbye, old friend,” Mai said feeling a deep sorrow in her chest.


    “Goodbye, little one,” Azusa whispered in her mind. “Be happy, despite the problems don''t deny yourself that. Share everything you have, with as many as you want. I wish you the best. Now let the arrow reach its destination. So you can save the boy.”


    “Eh? What boy?” Mai looked at Azusa quizzically and at that moment it struck her that Azusa was smiling. She couldn''t see a smile as such, but the three pairs of eyelids looked relaxed.


    “Tell Shin one last message.”


    “Wait, what boy are you talking about?”


    “Tell him: He''s not dead.”


    “Wait, Azusa!”


    Mai tried to reach for her but at that moment Azusa''s figure and all the white space began to fade. The last image Mai saw was how those eyes had closed and, although she couldn''t say for sure, it seemed to her that they were expressing a deep peace.


    “Goodbye Mai. We will see each other in another time and place.”


    The vision disappeared and the mental space faded from Mai''s mind.


    Time had been set in motion again.


    At that moment Mai''s wings and the bow emitted a great flash of green and glowed as never before, but it was only for a split second. It was almost as if Mai''s wings had released a residual energy and at the same time the arrow she had just shot emitted a large amount of energy as well. The green flash was seen over an expanse of several kilometers. From a distance it was almost like that strange flash that the sun used to emit on the horizon line during sunrises and sunsets.


    The long arrow flew toward the sphere with the speed of a storm, cutting through the wind with deadly accuracy. The light around it was blinding, as if all the accumulated energy in the air had followed it, guided by Mai''s will.


    Mai could then see that as it moved away towards the sphere, the arrow seemed not to lose size before her eyes. No. It was not that. It was as if the arrow had changed size. It had a much larger size.


    The sphere, which had previously floated inert, seemed to perceive the threat. A tremor ran through its surface, as if the object was awakening from a deep sleep. At that instant, something in the air changed.


    The arrow hit its target. It had all happened in less than a second, yet it had passed unnoticed by everyone''s eyes.


    The impact was like the clash of two worlds colliding. The arrow pierced the sphere in a blinding flash of green and turquoise, as if space itself had fractured under its force. The arrow sank into the sphere and disappeared towards the center. It had sunk into the center of that pupil.


    The sphere, which had been suspended in the air like an indomitable presence, began to distort. The air around it warped, and a shock wave spread in all directions with the speed of lightning.


    Mai had no time to react.


    The sphere imploded at the exact spot where the arrow had touched it, collapsing inward like a black hole. A blinding glow enveloped the entire landscape, and then an explosion of light and darkness that combined everything reality could contain. The shockwave ripped through the lake, sweeping everything in its path. The water of the lake, once churned by the wind and the storm, suddenly receded, as if swept away by an invisible current. The creatures, those malformed shadows that had scattered in the air, disintegrated instantly, as if they had never existed, swept away by the shock wave.


    Shin watched the spectacle in amazement. In the last few months he had only seen Mai use her bow once, but it didn''t even come close to what had happened this time. The explosion was much bigger.


    His gaze focused on the sphere as he watched it disappear and then something stirred inside him. He didn''t know why but, for some reason, he remembered some words he had read and heard just a few days ago. Or years, depending on the point of view, if he counted that he had been under the lake regenerating all that time.


    But those words were projected onto him in that second.


    We simply live to the sound of a meaningless symphony, in the infinite emptiness of a mind that cannot hear itself...


    Those had been some of Sergey Komarov''s last words, before being devoured by the creature that had assimilated him in Kolsay Lake. The words he had sent to his friend before disappearing.


    Shin did not know why, but when he saw that gigantic eye collapse and disappear, he had a similar sensation to the one he had felt when reading those words. They might seem like the ravings of a mad mind that had been infected by the spores of that fungus in the lake, but what if it was something else? After all, they were certain there were connections. The sculptor''s father had been there too.


    Was it all related? And at the same time he noticed that the pain in his eye had disappeared.


    On the surface of the lake, everyone on the shore had been blown away several meters around the place. Vehicles, some tents, and other equipment on the site had rolled away due to the spreading violence.


    Thor, using one of his derived abilities, used his magnetism to stay in place along with a group of about twenty soldiers that were around at the time. Noki who could move fast had done something similar by getting as many as she could to safety behind more solid ground or sending them into the forest. No one was sure to die due to the body enhancements, but more than likely there would be several injured. The battle against the creatures had done more damage to the forces than that devastating impact. Still the destruction was more than enough to leave a trauma.


    The creatures on the surface had vanished when that sphere imploded.


    Mai, floating in the air, closed her eyes to the impact of the light. The force of the shockwave knocked her backwards, pushing her with such violence that her wings instinctively stretched out to balance her. Everything around her seemed to distort: the water of the lake, the distant mountains, the sky itself. A second of pure chaos stretched into an eternity, but when the light disappeared, the world fell silent.


    The air suddenly stilled, and the land and the lake fell into a strange slumber, as if everything had succumbed to stillness. The sphere was no more. There was no trace of it, neither in the air nor on the water. The creatures had disappeared, evaporated by the force of the impact. Nothing remained, only the echo in their minds of what had happened.


    Mai looked towards the place where the sphere used to be. The feeling of devastation outside was as immense as the one she felt in her chest at that moment.


    Mai felt a pang in her chest. The essence of Azusa, so present and palpable throughout the conflict, had vanished even though the bow was still in her hand. It was not a real sound, but a presence in her mind, one she had shared from the beginning. Azusa had been more than an ally. She had been a guide, a force that had allowed Mai to get there.


    The wind began to whip hard around her, carrying with it the last vestiges of the battle. Mai''s emotions were mixed, as an intense drowsiness gripped her chest. She was gone after all.


    The answer came, clear, but filled with infinite sadness.


    The day was starting and the clouds were beginning to break. The last raindrops of the equinox fell on her as her head felt light.


    And at that moment, she felt her wings fade and she fell. Or at least that''s what she felt for a split second before arms grabbed her.


    All the moments of the battle dissolved into a haze of fatigue and pain. The emptiness swallowed all that was left of her. But a shadow had a hold on her.


    “Shin…”


    Shin''s serious face was in front of her. And even though everyone saw the same face on him, she could sense that at that moment slight facial features on him were expressing concern but at the same time relief.


    “I got you,” Mai heard, before she gave up as a tear rolled down her cheek. For a new kind of shot that sure had almost felt like the first one that had fired that bow.


    As her consciousness sank into a dream Mai released the bow slightly and Shin could see it begin to shatter like broken glass and then gather around Mai''s ear.


    It had transformed into the earring.


    But Shin could feel it was different.


    As if something had gone away.