Rash'Tor'Ri (Soulguard Book 4), page 21
"Oh no," she muttered and ran from the tent toward the control center for the airport that they were using for a command center.
She glanced out at the newest group of refugees numbering in the thousands that were camped outside of the shields.
"We have a problem," she said as she entered the command room.
"Don't like the sound of that," Kharl answered.
"Get everyone," she said. "There's a force of Kresh about an hour out and heading this way."
"How big?"
"Very."
"We have fourteen thousand people still outside the shields."
"I know and the ships are still four hours away."
"Shit."
"Exactly," she said. "We'll have to go out and meet them."
Kharl nodded, "I'll get them all together."
"We've still got some of the drones," she said. "We should send them out to get accurate numbers."
"Already working on it," he answered as he punched buttons on the keyboard. "Need to get Ky in here. She's better with the drone than I am."
"I'll get her," she said. "Get the drone prepped and ready."
"Will do."
She could see the worry in his aura, and the dread. Kharl had been a Soulguard for a long time. He knew what they would have to do, as did Lyrica. There were fifty Mages left in Lifeline and close to a hundred Soulguards. Nowhere near enough for the numbers she could see in the distance.
Lyrica hit the alarm that would call the forces in the base to readiness and left the room to find Kyra. She would be sleeping in the bottom floor of the control tower.
"What is it?" Kyra asked as Lyrica met her half way down the steps.
"We need you to run the probe," she answered. "We have an incoming force of indeterminate size. I know it's large."
"Damn," Kyra muttered as she rushed up the stairs.
Kharl moved from the seat as Kyra slid into his spot.
"It's prepped and ready, darlin'."
"Let's see what we have," she returned and launched the drone.
They watched the camera as it flew over the refugees to the west. It began to cover ground quickly but still met the incoming Kresh all too soon.
"Son of a bitch," Kharl muttered. "I'll gather the troops."
"Mages only," Lyrica said.
"What?"
"We'll need the Guards to mop up what is left," she said.
"Just what the hell are you planning on doing?"
Lyrica turned toward the door, "Whatever I have to, Mom. Whatever I have to. I need you to stay here and bring the Guards in to clean up what we can't."
"Hell, no," Kyra answered. If you think I'll stand by as you go out there to face that, you're mistaken."
"But we need…"
"As I said, hell no."
She put the drone on autopilot with a circling pattern and stood up.
"We all go."
Lyrica could see it in her Soul. There was no way she would convince her to stay behind.
Kharl had stopped to hear this argument, "My guess is that you will find it impossible to get the Guards to stay behind, as well."
Lyrica sighed.
"It is what it is, Honey," Kyra said. "We all go."
Lyrica nodded and the three of them exited the control building with no illusions about where this was going to take them. They'd all seen the numbers the drone had picked up. Well over a half million Kresh were barreling down on them and they had no reinforcements within range.
The alarm had brought the base to life and they were met by the others on the tarmac.
"What is it?" Trent asked.
"We have an army incoming," Kharl answered. "Close to a million."
Trent looked toward the forces they had to defend Lifeline and nodded.
Lyrica saw the cascade of emotions that ran through his aura, ultimately ending with an acceptance of the situation. Over and over she saw this play through the auras around her and her own aura rolled with a pride she had seen in Colin's aura when he looked at his Soulguards.
"We move out in ten minutes," Kharl said. He turned to Lyrica, "What do you have in mind, girl?"
"It has to be something big," she said. "I need to speak with the prisoner."
"I'll get him," he rumbled.
"He can hear what I have to say where he is," she said and walked toward the shield close to the control tower that wrapped around a Kresh captive. They used to be one of the most fearsome beings any Soulguard would see in the caverns.
The Wraith was held immobile by a shield that wrapped closely around him. They'd captured the Kresh some time back in the field. Colin had sent it back to camp for them to interrogate and learn as much as they could from it.
The Wraith stared at them as they approached.
"I know you understand us, so I'll make this short," Lyrica said. "Can you reach the force that is coming with your telepathy?"
"I have no need to help you, meat," the Kresh answered with a deep guttural voice.
"I'll take that as a yes," she said. "Relay a message to the leader of this group."
"You wish to beg for his mercy?"
"I give him fair warning, Kresh," Lyrica had moved so fast the Wraith couldn't even follow. She was inches from him, "Turn around and leave. If he does this I will let him live."
The Wraith was silent for a moment before he began to laugh, "Tor'Dun'Velamas says that he will eat the flesh from your bones. Then he will carry your head back to the others and place it beside the head of Rash…"
His head snapped sideways with a crack. Lyrica hadn't touched him, she didn't need to. She had caused the shield holding the Kresh to twist.
"Figured that was useless," she said. "So be it."
"We're ready when you are," Kharl rumbled.
"I need a minute," she answered. "I have to leave him a message."
"Talk to him," Kharl said.
"I can't," she returned. "If I hear his voice… I just can't. I'll lose my resolve."
Kharl placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
She entered the control tower to find Grady, the wounded Army lieutenant that would be manning the com system. He was at the console watching the image from the drone.
"Please record a message for me, Grady. I need you to send it to him after we are gone."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Lyrica walked out of the control tower with red eyes but she held her head high. He would never forgive her for what she was about to do. She thought of how fragile he truly was. Everyone would scoff if they heard her say that. Him? Fragile? But she had always seen what was inside Colin Rourke. Everyone saw the exterior, the man who had killed more Kresh than anyone in history. The man who chased the Kresh clan from Kenya to Cairo. The man who had devastated the Kresh at Second Kansas. They saw Life Ender, Rash'Tor'Ri, Bloodlord, and many other names they had given him. She feared for him but there was no other option.
"Move out," she ordered and opened the door to the shield. She could see the fear in them all but they were Soulguards and they wouldn't have stayed behind if she had ordered it. They were all needed to do what she had in mind. She wasn't even sure it was possible, but that had never stopped her before.
She launched herself forward toward the west and the growing darkness followed by Kharl and Kyra, Mattie and Trent, Andrea Prada, and forty five more Mages. She could name them all, as well as name the ninety four Soulguards who followed behind them.
They covered almost three miles before she stopped.
"This will do," she said. "All Mages will be Supports."
"What are you planning?" Prada asked with eyes narrowed.
Lyrica looked forward as the Kresh poured across the huge plain in front of them, her eyes blazing with Soulfire.
"This!" She reached into the Source and power surged through all of the Mages in torrents. Everyone staggered as the whole plain erupted in fire.
Lyrica crumpled and everything faded into darkness.
Chapter 44
"Sir, they came out of nowhere," Lieutenant Grady said. "Close to a million of them. Miss Jayne took every Mage out to meet them, Sir. She left a message for me to play for you."
I had stopped right in the middle of the battle. There was a hollow pit in my stomach. They had just sent the majority of their forces to join us in this last push to the gate. The Mages had reacted quickly and surrounded me.
"Play it," I said with a hollow voice.
"I know I'm a coward for doing this, my love," Lyrica's voice began and I groaned. "I couldn't tell you face to face what is about to happen. There are too many and we are too few, but we can't stand idle while they kill thousands of people that have been through so much."
I could see her face in my mind as she explained, "I will try to keep as many of ours safe as I can, my love, but you know I couldn't get them to stay behind. If what I intend to do works, the Kresh will be stopped here. I'm so sorry for not facing you in person and I hope that, someday you can forgive me. Just know that I will always love you."
"Oh my God…" came lieutenant Grady's voice just before the static as the com system shut down.
The world seemed to lurch to the side as I felt the Source scream as if in agony. That's what it felt like to me. I had people linked to me back at Lifeline and could always feel them if I tried but now there was nothing except the chaos of the Source.
I dropped to my knees, "No, no, no."
Something broke inside of me. They'd taken everything from me. My mother, my father, and then all of the friends who had fallen throughout this bloody war. Now they had taken the rest, Mom, Dad, my friends, my family…my angel and my child.
I slammed my fist into the ground as the darkness inside of me came rushing to the surface. They had taken my little angel! There was nothing left. Nothing but my rage, my hate, and my vengeance.
The beast came screaming out of the darkness of my mind and swatted the Shak'Tar's mental reinforcements aside. They are strong but they were never more than reinforcement to my own mind. And I had stepped aside.
I let the darkness take over. I left one thing and one thing, only. One dread purpose.
Kill them all!
I had wondered what would turn a soul black from the moment that I had met Jim Duke, the man known only as the "Whisper in the Night" to his enemies. It seems that it takes the loss of everything, because when I stood back up, my Soul burned with black flames.
"Support." I ordered.
"How many?" asked Reyna.
"Everyone."
"Dios Mia," she muttered
The dark side of me was not what I expected. It seethed with rage and hatred, but it wasn't like the many times I had let it out before. Perhaps I had never really let it all the way out before this.
I walked forward into the ranks of Kresh and ripped a thousand souls from their bodies. Then a wave of black flame swept the dead from my path.
I heard the coms, "Reinforce southern flank!"
My Sight was open and I saw the whole division that had taken the southern flank overrun by Kresh.
Power thrummed through the streams of close to two hundred Mages as I reached out to snatch another thousand souls from the Kresh. Then I Pulled from that dark stream that fed my Kresh side and lashed out with a black lightning that crossed the area in front of me, incinerating more of them.
I felt the power do things to me with the Kresh DNA. The pain rolled through me but I ignored it
I saw a Kresh'Ma'Nar ahead of me, and reached out with my mind to pull an image. He dreamed of standing before his own clan as a Farrara'Ti. I twisted that image to show him before his clan but they were all twisted and burnt laying in a wasteland. Then I slammed that image outward with my mind
TAKING EVERYTHING! My mental voice boomed.
I leapt into the air toward the center of their army. As I arced downward, I tore the souls from those below me and landed in the center of thousands of dead Kresh. More pain rolled through me as the Kresh DNA twisted inside of me.
I latched onto another Kresh mind, a Wraith. His fondest memory was of a coliseum in Hub. They had watched as Humans fought various beasts or other Humans in their "Gladiator" style games for their amusement. I shattered that image with all of the Kresh around the coliseum dead and burned while the Humans stood unharmed in the arena. I slammed that image out into those Kresh around me.
LEAVING NOTHING! My voice boomed once again, louder in the minds around me than before.
Black lightning rolled through the Kresh once more, leaving charred remains. The Kresh turned away from the forces they were facing to come toward me.
COME, THEN. COME AND DIE!
They charged toward me only to fall as their souls were ripped free to be sucked back into the gateway in the distance. I Pulled from both Sources and Lashed with my mind. Taking a view I had seen personally from the rooftop of the Doran Facility of the open plains around Hub, I twisted it to be littered with burned and dead Kresh in a charred wasteland. That vision rolled across the Kresh.
THIS DAY YOUR WORLD BURNS!
I leapt toward the gate and removed the souls from the Kresh below me.
There is no army, whether it be Human or savage alien that can take the continual losses the clan of Hal'For'Radolin had taken on our world without psychological damage. These clans may have been savage, fearless monsters when they attacked Earth, but they broke that day in front of a gateway in Australia. They ran from me. I chased them, killing any I could reach.
They call me Rash'Tor'Ri, Life Ender. I owned that name on a barren plain in Australia, as I tore through their terrified numbers fleeing for their lives. I was a ruthless killing machine and there was no stopping me.
As I closed with the gateway to Hub I reached out once again for power, Pulling twenty huge tendrils of power from the Source out of the ground. A Kresh'Ma'Nar was just inside the portal and he turned back with a fear that had spread from those before me. In seconds, the gate closed, severing the Soulstreams of millions of their own clan.
My rage was pouring forth and my roars were more like the Kresh than Human, as I thrashed those huge tendrils around, killing the dying Kresh. They were cut off from their Source, but it wasn't enough. I wanted to kill them all.
The Kresh had shut, not only the gate in front of us, but all of them. Every gate on the planet closed at the same time.
"…these damn coms back up or I'll rip your friggin' arm off!"
It took a few moments while I thrashed those tentacles around before I realized the voice was Kyra's.
Chapter 45
"They're up?" she asked through the static. "Colin, if you can hear me, we need you now. Lyrica is alive but we don't know how long we can last. The Kresh, the ones that survived, just died right in front of us. We will hold her here as long as we can, Son, but she needs you."
The second I heard she was alive, I charged back up out of the darkness I had sunk into. Surprisingly, the beast stepped aside, just as I had. There is a reason I don't have to fight with the beast as much when she is with me. I love her with all of my being, whether it be dark or light.
I could feel the changes the Kresh DNA had wrought in my body. My center of gravity was higher, so I was taller. My telepathy was stronger than I could have imagined. I felt the Shak'Tar back in Lifeline, even through the chaos of the Source. I reached out to find myself looking out of the eyes of a terrified Shak'Tar. He was staring at twenty huge tendrils of power hovering above him.
They had followed my mind across the continent. With a surge of power from my supports, I slammed the tendrils down into the Source. The Shak'Tar turned and I could see what Lyrica had done. Across the plain, the Source was no longer below the surface of the world. The whole plain was covered in twenty feet of roiling chaos.
My mind sprang back to my body.
"Boss?" Rostov was right behind me. "What is that?"
We were staring at where the tendrils had closed together. There was a small spot in between the edges that did not close. Through that space I was looking into the eyes of Kren Logis, the Shak'Tar I had been connected with on the other side of the continent.
I was still connected to two hundred Mages but I didn't know how many were close to their limits.
"More supports," I ordered.
I felt others open the support tendrils. Then I reached out with my mind and pushed the tendrils apart. Power surged up the streams of over a thousand Mages as the tendrils spread wider. They reached about three feet.
"Go," Rostov said. "She needs you. We will clean up here."
I dove through the hole that snapped closed behind me. I was standing in front of an amazed Kren.
I AM HERE, my mental voice rolled across the base.
"Where is she?" I asked Kren.
He pointed toward the west where the Source was boiling above the ground.
I looked closely to see a small cluster of souls almost hidden by the Source behind them. Then I was airborne. I landed in a cloud of dust and launched myself again.
I saw them surrounding her. She was down and a ring if Mages surrounded her. Another ring of Guards surrounded them and a piled ring of dead Kresh encircled the whole group. I landed in the center of that ring.
The Mages were glowing as their Streams flowed forcefully through them into her. Some had already fallen as my supports in Kansas had done, some of those souls were very dim. I reached her side and pulled her to me.
The second I touched her, my stream erupted with power that flowed into her as well. I looked up to see the astonished faces that stared back at me. I had changed, physically from the connection to the Kresh Source. I was me but I was different.
"How?" Prada muttered.
Kyra stepped forward, glowing with the power being drawn through her, to stare closely at me.
"Oh, my son," she said. "What have you done to yourself?"
