The Psywyrm's Fall

They launched off the ground together, rocketing toward the Psywyrm as it reared its head back again. Wind whistled past Kaito’s ears as he dove, Dario soaring above him with fire-javelin raised overhead.

Kaito arched his body forward so his legs faced the Psywyrm, raising his sword overhead.

“Oh,” Dario shouted from above, “watch out, your sword’s gonna-”

With a roar, Kaito slashed the blade across the parasite’s body, and the metal shattered.

“Oh for hell’s sake,” he shouted, falling past the Psywyrm. He landed on the edge of the pit behind it, Dario landing after him.

“Anything?” Kaito asked.

“I tried telling you,” Dario said, raising his empty hands as he shrugged, the rich red and gold fabrics of his priest robe bunching at his shoulders. “Not even an inch deep. Unlike where I was with your mother last night.”

Kaito sighed, holding up his sword’s hilt. The opal glowed, and like sparks flying in reverse, the shards of the blade whipped from across the battle field towards him, reassembling the blade with a brilliant flash of orange light.

“Phoenix blade back stronger, is it?” Dario asked, twirling his beard with a finger. “Just like I was with your-”

The Psywyrm spread its wing, rearing its head with another pulsing, electrical spring that pierced Kaito’s ears. It flapped weakly again, the back of its hood swirling with that water-like image, its back spined with what looked like dark blue brain matter.

“Its hide is still too thick, which means it isn’t tired enough to loosen its defenses,” Kaito muttered.

“Hey, if I could loosen your mother’s defenses like-”

“Dario, I swear to the Devil, if you make one more joke.”

“Okay I’m sorry,” Dario paused. “Isn’t that Shun?”

Kaito turned to the direction Dario pointed, and sure enough, there lumbered Shun. He stood about twelve-foot tall in the Ethergeist, his torso obese but his arms and legs as scrawny as Dario’s were in the real world.

He waved over at them from the other side of the pit.

“Oi,” his voice boomed, louder than any sound the Psywyrm had made so far, “that was terrible. Try again.”

Kaito was about to shout back, but he was barely audible from five feet away, never mind the one-hundred foot chasm that separated them. He glanced down the pit, frowning at the tree-roots holding the Psywyrm’s body in place in a fibonacci spiral, reinforcement roots forming a kind of triangulated scaffolding. It was slowly slipping out of the knot Shun had caught it in. There was still about half of its body to go. But eventually, once the majority of its body was out, it could just fly away.

But when it did that, it would have to loosen its skin from the hardened state. And that would be its doom.

Shun lifted his arms, and with a shriek he dug his fingers into the earth. There was a faint rumbling beneath Kaito’s feet, but he didn’t see the roots Shun manipulated. He was probably just setting up another trap higher in the pit so that he could resnare the Psywyrm when it got too close to-

Kaito’s eyes widened. The second pair of wings lower down the Psywyrms back spread open, right above where the roots held it in place.

“Oh no,” Dario said, running towards the creature along the edge. “I can see it breaking free!”

No.

With another shrill, the Psywyrm beat all four wings and tore free from the roots, snapping them like string.

“No!” Kaito shouted, chasing after the monster as Dario leapt after it above him.

Shun let out a thunderous grunt, and another web of roots sprung shut around the Psywyrms tail just before it slid out of the pit, the wood creaking as it tightened.

It pulled the monster’s body taut, slamming it belly-down with a deafening crash. The impact sent a wave of sand flying around it, and Kaito raised his sword. His balance faltered as the shockwave hit him, his dark hair whipping around his head.

Malena, where are you?

He rushed through the cloud of sand, the outline of the Psywyrm's body laying in the dirt blurring into focus when the rapid footprints of something chasing him grew from behind.

He turned, swinging his sword as the Fear leapt at him, its wolf-like jaws spreading and unleashing a swarm of marbled white tentacles.

Kaito severed the Fear’s body in two, its parts rolling across the ground either side of him.

“Damned Fears,” he spat.

He glanced down at his left hand, the index finger twitching again. He clenched the hand into a fist, and turned to the Psywyrm as it slowly lifted its gigantic head, sand pouring off it in thin streams.

Kaito slowed to a halt as the creature turned to look at him, its four glowing yellow eyes narrowing. Those holes began to pulse with yellow light, and it reared its head back to launch those venom-crystals.

But a giant arrow whistled across the plane and tore right through the creature's neck with a spray of cyan liquid. It let out a series of magnetic groans as it fell, thrashing its head side to side, its hood closing as Dario leapt at its left wing, spinning in the air with two fire-javelins and slicing it clean off with a yell.

Yes.

Kaito raised his sword, and ran closer to the creature with all his might.

Almost there, he told himself, closing his eyes as he remembered them, one by one.

All the friends he’d lost. All the weeks they’d spent in the Ethergeist, fighting non-stop, day and night, draining hours of their life that they could never get back if they even lived to enjoy what remained.

He ran out of the sand cloud, staring up at the creature as cyan blood ran down its neck and body.

Today is the last day. He crouched, focusing his strength on his legs.

“For Specterveil!” he roared.

He leapt high into the air, careening over the Psywyrm’s body. His hair whipped around in the wind, whistling past his ears as he began to fall. He raised his sword, aiming right at the monster’s head.

For humanity.

He swung the blade down, slicing through flesh and bone with a splatter and crunch as he landed on the creature’s head. He pulled the sword out with a low sucking noise, and rammed it back into the wound. Over and over again, blood spraying as he shouted.

He panted, kneeling as he rested his hand on the sword’s hilt, its top half still lodged in the monster’s flesh.

Did we do it?

He turned around, boots squelching against its slimy skin as he walked a couple of steps backward. The creature’s gargantuan body lay motionless on the landscape, like a mountain scape of blue flesh.

He panted harder as a smile unfurled across his face. Tears stung his eyes, his body shaking with excitement.

He raised his sword. “Ye-e-e-es!”

His voice echoed over the landscape, the Velin soldiers cheering with him like ants in the distance. Dario landed next to him on all fours, standing and slapping him on the back.

“Well done, you bag of- oof!”

Kaito squeezed him in a hug, the two jumping for joy atop the creature’s corpse.

“We did it, Dario,” Kaito said, punching him in the shoulder so hard it made him wince. “We’re the first Psyonic crew to kill an adult Psywyrm.”

Dario grinned, placing his hands on his hips. “Also the first to trap one and damn near lose it, don’t forget.”

Kaito laughed, patting him on the shoulder again. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed. It must have been long. Just a couple of seconds made his face hurt.

He squinted at the sunlight as something soared overhead, his smile widening as he spotted Malena’s red hair streaming in the wind.

Her dragonfly wings created a ring around her as she descended beside him, the buzz droning out the cheers of the soldiers around them.

She grinned, her blue eyes glittering. “What on earth would you do without me, Kaito?”

He smirked, shaking his head as she threw her arms around his neck, her legs and wings lifting.

“I’d be dead,” Kaito said, hugging her back.

She stepped back, raising her hand to give Dario a high-five.

He sighed, and clapped his hand against hers. “Yeah, good shot. We had it covered though.”

She cocked her head to the side, placing her hands on her hips. “You nearly let it escape, dummy.”

“Oi, oi,” Shun’s voice thundered from behind.

Kaito grunted as the giant wrapped his arms around all three of them in a group hug, crushing Kaito between Malena and Dario. He laughed again, Malena’s hair pressing against his cheek, Dario’s elbow pressing against his armour.

“Good job guys,” Shun said.

Dario pulled his face away from Kaito’s as he struggled. “Hey, stupid! You’re going to break my spine.”

“You don’t got a spine, Dario,” Shun said as he let them go.

Malena giggled, her wings buzzing to life as she swooped into the air, hanging upside down in front of Kaito’s face.

“What do we do now, Captain?” she asked.

Kaito smiled. “We go home.”

“Well,” Dario said, stretching his arms overhead, “if we’re the reason for mankind’s ascension to some higher level of consciousness, or whatever the hell it’s supposed to do, it’s not the worst way to go down in the history files.”