Dragon Aster Trilogy

21: FALL OF THE FALLS



Kas braced himself to dodge a direct hit from Mersael’s gun, but his chances of surviving looked slim.

“If you kill Kas or myself, a mere thought from me will set the power generators to self-destruct. For I will not leave my city to a monster. I should have put you down the moment you opened your cold eyes to the world,” Exoir threatened Mersael.

“Always the loving father, aren’t we? But your somn will do you no good when it is very much gone.”

Kas looked to the wall as two other energies came at Exoir’s somn in the thick wire and collided with it, snuffing the spark out. Then they raced through the wire and took out the somns of Exoir’s two assistants. Kas didn’t waste a breath charging at Mersael after Exoir collapsed in his chair. The griffin somnus fired on him, striking him in the shoulder with the bullet. Before Mersael could get another shot off, a different spark collided with the two in the wall. Both were snuffed out like Exoir’s and Mersael’s soldiers dropped to the ground. Then the spark expanded and hurled itself like a ribbon of electricity at Mersael, throwing him across the room.

“Kas!”

Kas didn’t believe he heard right until he saw Gwa when the door opened. His friend ran into the room and kicked the weapons away from Mersael and the dying griffin somnus guards. “How did you…?”

“Find you? Get in here? It’s a long story.” Gwa went over to pick up one of the guns, and after looking at Exoir’s body, he took aim at Mersael.

“You wouldn’t shoot…your own father,” Mersael said with certainty in his yellow eyes.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t shoot someone who I considered a ‘father.’ But the monster who shot my mother has to be put down.” Then he fired on his heart, and Mersael collapsed to the floor.

Kas wasn’t sure the real Gwa was before him now.

Gwa went over to Exoir as the old griffin still breathed. Countless wires and sparks dangled over him, and Gwa dodged to the side when a wire fell. Exoir’s eyes suddenly opened and looked directly at his grandson.

“Gwa…”

“Grandfather.”

Exoir smiled a toothless smile, but even in his decaying state, it didn’t stop Gwa from hugging him. “You have…your mother’s spirit. How…miraculous.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner—I should—”

“There was no way for you to know. I am…the one at fault for trusting Mersael. I was wrong…now this moment is all I get with you. But it is…enough.”

Gwa forced himself not to cry as Exoir closed his eyes and stopped breathing.

“Hold it right there!” Five guards appeared at the door and aimed their guns at them.

Gwa turned his fury and sadness on them, as his somn sparked angrily through the wires and shut the door on the guards, locking them out. Then he sent it around the room in search of another mechanism to channel his anger through.

“Gwa, is there another way out?” Kas asked.

The griffin somnus looked around the room, before looking at the body of his father. He reached into Mersael’s pocket and pulled out a mini version of his own panel. After Gwa had turned it on, his face turned a paler shade of white.

“What is on it?” Kas was answered in part when the whole volcanic crater shook.

“Exoir was telling the truth—he must have had something hooked up to his vitals. This entire place is going to blow. We have to get out of here.”

Kas picked up a blade from one of Mersael’s guards, then stood on the side of the door. He used the moment to take out the bullet from his shoulder with his nails. Then he healed the wound with his aeri before he could lose anymore blood. “Take cover and open it.”

“That’s a lot of guards,” Gwa said, unsheathing his own blade.

“Open it!” Kas shouted this time, both from the pain and anger he felt.

Gwa used his somn to move the mechanisms that opened the door.

The first two guards were met by the full speed and power of the blade Kas weld, as Gwa took out two on his own. The remaining one fled down the shaking metal walkway.

Kas grabbed the banister when the shaking got worse. He looked down to the water below that glowed red. The generators hadn’t exploded yet. Hell, it would seem, was in the minds of the builders of this dead volcanic city that would very soon come back to life.

He looked to the side as three griffin somnus soldiers came to a stop on the walkway and cocked and aimed their guns at him. Gwa appeared behind them and cut them down with his sword, and Kas focused his attention upwards. A thick net of metal trapped them all inside. “Any way you can shut off the electricity in the net?”

Gwa looked up with him. “The generators have to blow, or I need another griffin somn—there’s too many wires to it.”

Kas began to think quickly. “Four generators. We each take two.”

Gwa touched a panel on the wall, pulling up a map. Just as he did, one of the generators exploded and the cries of those caught in range followed. “Seems like everyone is trying to do the same thing to escape.” They split up from each other then, and raced towards their targets below before the lava could catch up to them first.

Kas jumped several broken walkways and stairs, as everything continued to be shaken free from the sides of the crater. Before he could decide what to do with the soldiers that demanded his surrender before him, Aragmoth did first. The first of the dozen of waterfalls that powered the city of Tech began to flow lava. The soldiers lowered their weapons and turned and fled, as their cries were matched by the civilians who ran from and through the white domes of the falling buildings. Many were no longer under cascading waterfalls—but liquid fire.

Kas reached the hallway that led to the generator and quickly unsheathed his blade. Looking around at the wires connected to the giant box of a Tech, he found the ones that Gwa had instructed him to cut. He ran for them and struck his blade through them, one by one, until they sparked and the machine began to overload. Then he ran for his life and ducked to the side of the tunnel when the explosion followed him.

Kas ran back the way he had come as Gwa was already in the air. The griffin grabbed the netting that shielded the city with several other griffins and with enough force they were able to bring it down. Kas stepped back and pressed himself against the wall as a piece crashed down, crushing several griffin somnus who weren’t expecting it in the process. Then he looked back up as the griffins flew from their cage of a home like an ascent of white angels, while their falling feathers were burned and drowned in the blood of Aragmoth.

“Kas, let’s go!” Gwa shouted at him.

Kas looked across the walkway, and he ran to the edge of it as it fell. He jumped off the side and Gwa caught him in his talons, then followed the rest of the masses out of the volcano. Once they were clear from the destruction, Gwa set him down on the ice. Or what was ice for now, as the lava from the Falls continued to spread and melt it.

Kas looked up into the dark sky as it was both star and moonless, which meant that Aragmoth didn’t so much as have the strength left to keep his illusions visible to his world. There were no more illusions now just as very soon there would be no world left.

Gwa ducked when another loud explosion sounded off from the direction of the Falls.

“There is very little time—” Kas stopped when he felt a stabbing pain go through his chest.

“Kas?” Gwa quickly unsomned and caught his friend before Kas could hit the snow.