“Reginald?” Jane turned her gaze to the man. “Are you ready?”
“Of course.”
Jane pointed back in the direction from which they’d come. “We need to get a couple miles out at least, I’d guess. We can’t do anything—especially here—until we can find the full strength of Chi’karda. Come on.”
She pulled up the lower edges of her robe and started running, a sight that for some reason made Tick want to laugh. Instead, he shot a dirty look at Chu and sprinted after her, wondering if the old man could keep up.
Chapter 56
The Furious Beat of Wings
We need to make it to the wall!” Sato shouted.
His throat hurt like acid had been poured down his gullet; his voice was raw and scratchy as he continued to encourage and command his Fifth Army. The creatures of the Void kept coming in their onslaught of an attack, threatening to overwhelm Sato and the rest with sheer numbers. But the soldiers kept their composure and maintained their positions, firing Shurrics and throwing Ragers. With every monster killed, another wispy streak of mist shot toward the sky to join the ever-growing mass of storm clouds that boiled above them.
The ground shook beneath them; screams of pain and anger pierced the air; thunder rumbled and lightning flashed; things bent and twisted and bubbled in unnatural ways. And the gray creatures kept coming—fangen through the air and the others loping and leaping across the dusty canyon floor.
Sato aimed his Shurric at a lanky, six-legged beast with a head that was all gaping jaws and teeth. He fired, then watched the thing disintegrate and swirl into smoke and be whisked away, flitting upward out of sight. He aimed at another monster—three legs, three arms, two heads. Fired. Killed it. Another one—a blur of arms and smoky fur and teeth. Shot and obliterated. Another, then another. The beasts of the Void were everywhere.
Sato was taking aim when claws ripped into his shirt, scratching his skin. He looked up at a fangen just as its claws clenched into a fist and gripped the material, yanking him upward. The Shurric slipped out of Sato’s hand. He reached out to grab it, but he was too late. It clattered against the head of one of his soldiers.
The creature flew farther up, keeping a tighter hold on him now with two clawed fists, its membranous wings flapping against the twisty, windy air. Sato flailed with his arms, trying to beat at the beast, to no avail. He changed his focus to the thing’s two-handed grip and tried to loosen the claws. They didn’t budge.
Sato reached up with his hands and gripped the fangen’s forearms. He held on tightly for leverage, then kicked up with his legs, smashing one of his feet into the beast’s face. It wailed a piercing cry and shook his body while it plummeted several yards, almost crashing into the soldiers below. But at the last second, it swooped up again, furiously beating its wings. Sato’s stomach pitched and twisted as badly as the morphing shapes of Reality all around them.
He gripped the fangen’s forearms again, kicked up with his legs. His foot connected again, and this time he threw his hands at the wings, catching one of them by the thin stretch of skin between two bones. He yanked on it with all of his weight, pulling downward.
The creature shrieked again as they both fell toward the ground once more. This time, they came within reach of two tall soldiers, who quickly dropped their weapons and grabbed the fangen, slamming it to the ground, freeing Sato. And then they took care of the beast.
Sato jumped to his feet, adrenaline screaming through his body.
An odd sound suddenly tore through the air, overpowering everything else. It wasn’t just that—all other noises seemed to cease at once, replaced by an overbearing, all-consuming sound that made everyone pause in whatever they’d been doing. Sato couldn’t help it any more than the others. He faced the open canyon that towered above him.
A tonal thrum, mixed with a sound like bending metal, rang throughout the valley, giving Sato the strange sense that his ears had been stuffed with cotton. He didn’t see anything different or unusual at first, other than both sides of the battle had stopped fighting. The soldiers of the Fifth Army had lowered their weapons, searching the sky to figure out what was going on. Most of the Void creatures had disappeared—when, Sato had no idea. But trails of mist were everywhere, all of them snaking their way toward the clouds.
His gaze lifted; he felt almost hypnotized by the warping and the bell-like sounds clanging through the valley. He was looking directly at the churning gray storm when it suddenly divided into countless tornadoes, funneling down like a hundred gray fingers.
And then Reality itself started to split at the seams.
Chapter 57
Gashes in the World