The Rage Of The Unwell One

This red was something beyond Dissonance. Whatever force was painting the world in crimson, it was not what Sayane had faced before.

This was simply malice incarnate.

The being known as Vraxlyn the Broken had barely landed from its descent before it coiled and prepared to strike again. Fury erupted from two elongated barrels that jutted out from her back, and her massive lance ignited in glowing destruction.

“Barrier and weapons nearly synced!” the engineer named Lorna called out. Azag and Can-Mo braced their footing in preparation.

Sayane watched from behind the barrier, and Azag’s shield as Vraxlyn looked to the skies and let out another scream of anguish and frustrated fear.

When her arms extended, Sayane could see something on her arms that was akin to her own arm bracers.

“She’s got her gauntlets!! Sever her arms!!!” Erosc shouted in horrified realization.

“Cleave her arms! Rip her spine! Destroy her!!” Xentros commanded.

Hundreds rushed forward, but she was ready. Metallic-coated claws ripped across her body as she howled out, then flung her arms against her chest.

All around her, the dead weapons rose in a flurry of metal, rock, and crystal.

“I AM WRATH! I AM MONSTROSITY!! I AM THE EMPTINESS!!! EVERY BLADE BENDS TO MEEEE!!!!” she wept as the battlefield’s leftover weapons began to fling across the plain like pets being recalled to their master.

As the weapons scorched toward her, they sliced and ripped into all they passed. Sayane watched in terror as dozens upon dozens were ripped open without care. All of her healing was for naught.

“Weapons and barrier sync complete in ten!”

The castaway vessels of death reached Vraxlyn and began to howl around her in a ring of annihilation. Vraxlyn breathed in, then let out a howling wail.

“Guard yourselves!!!” Erosc shouted.

Every fighter braced as the sound paused, then split into suffering. Blades, maces, lances, shattered stone, and every other former weapon flung from her embrace and out into the battlefield. Waves of death broke and flowed as arcs of red, purple, and blue sprayed from screaming bodies that were torn open before they could even react. Sayane found herself frozen as feeling left every inch of her body.

“Five!!”

This was different.

This was beyond The Silence.

She couldn’t beat this.

She feared none of them could.

“NOW!” Lorna shouted.

“Brace!” Azag roared as the gunnery device shook, then glowed.

“Cover your ears!” Attis shouted.

Barrels hummed. Energy snaked through empty coils that glistened in waiting. Iridescent light funnelled and spun within glassy chambers as white embers burst from exhaust ports.

The weapon inhaled.

Then it sang its own song of death and torment.

When the blast erupted out, Sayane could feel the entire ground shift beneath her as she covered her ears and pulled her elbows in to hold Attis and Anahita from falling away. Cracks of strain snapped across the dried soil, and Azag’s knees almost buckled. The beam tore across space and time, directly towards Vraxlyn. Every blade in its way melted into nothingness, but Vraxlyn simply flinched in anticipation.

White shattered and ignited. Energy sprayed in every direction, filling the air once more with milky, unclear steam. Red light from above mixed into the ambience, drowning all of the land in crimson. Before the sounds of the blast had even fully faded, she was bursting forth once again.

A small, spherical barrier of blue had enveloped her, just like the energy that had once covered the sky. She was unharmed.

Screams echoed in the air as the blades spun around her, and she leapt high into the air.

Decimation sprayed from her lance and RAGE propulsion barrels, sending fiery death down to all of those around her. Bodies ignited and screamed in horror, then were destroyed by the following wave of steel.

Hums of recovery moved through Azag’s weapon. Clicks released and glowing exhaust poured around them. Hisses of heat burned along their skin. Gnarling, desperate power bellowed from the deep emptiness of the massive chamber, and the weapon found its second round.

“Brace!!” Azag shouted.

His aim waited. Fingers paused on command latches. Her arc was reaching its precipice. Contortions of agile hate pulled her into a circle, and she spun like a saw blade down towards the warriors below. The RAGE system fired once more, and she shot downward in a beam of light. Azag waited to fire. It was too fast.

Her attack struck the ground, and the soil around her snapped. Dozens screamed as they were hurled from the earth and up to the air, where another wave of blades was waiting.

Then Erosc and Xentros were there alone.

Vraxlyn screamed out once again and burst forward, leaving a trail of red behind her. Before Erosc’s foot had even planted, she was upon him. His mace pulled itself into position to block her impact, but the force was still there. Shattering metal exploded as the raw lightning clapped out from his destroyed mace. Erosc took the remaining brunt of the impact, as his mace caved in his breastplate and flung him far away. Sayane screamed out as his limp body flew into a nearby hull.

But it gave Azag the opening he needed. The Broken was temporarily suspended from the halting momentum.

The weapon exhaled, and another song of devastation sang out. Soil ripped. Sayane nearly fell over.

The beam struck its airborne target, and she was hurled to the side as her barrier ate the entirety of the force.

Xentros was ready.

His great sword swung through the air and struck the barrier with a deafening snap. Chunks of energy fell like broken glass. She was exposed.

And now she was even more afraid.

Fangs extended, and her RAGE flung her upwards, then over into a flipping dive. Centripetal force spun her until she moved so fast that all Sayane could see was a blur. Before it even registered, Xentros’s right arm was ripped away.

Vraxlyn landed, and the RAGE charged once more. Every remaining blade gathered behind her in waiting. Her hand rose, and her wild, horrified eyes found Sayane within the barrier.

“Sooooongstressssssssss!!!!!!!” she screamed as she threw her hand forward.

“Hang on!!” Azag shouted.

The entirety of the weaponry wave fired towards them. Every remaining soul that stood in the way was eradicated. Hundreds of bloodied, furious blades struck the barrier, sending everyone inside screaming for cover.

“Integrity failing!!!” Lorna screamed out as more and more weapons attacked.

Sayane wished she had never woken from her panic attack. This was far worse. Reality was always worse. She was too weak to do anything. Even the instruments seemed half dead from strain.

Then she was upon them.

Her fury came from the sky once again. Down she had fallen, until her lance struck the barrier directly over Sayane.

“Barrier breaking!!!” Lorna cried as cracks began to appear on the encasement.

Sayane looked up and saw Vraxlyn above her, pressing down with all of her ravenous hate. Once again, the glowing, terrified, wild yellow eyes were all she could focus on at first. Then she saw the tears streaking her scarred, broken face. Ashen grey fur was stained black at its matted edges. Her snout was a mutilated lump of carved flesh. Seeing her up close gave Sayane the feeling that she was merely a waking husk of a soul.

Red death roared with more power, sending clouds of ash from the RAGE system. Vraxlyn pushed her lance down with another cry of agony.

Can-Mo raised his gunnery and screamed out as he fired every weapon at her, but her barrier had already recharged enough. Faint glows intercepted nearly every burst, save for one that scorched her side, sending another cry of agony from her lips.

“ALL OF YOU WILL DIE! EVERYONE WILL DIE! ALWAYS!!! EVERYONE WILL DIE BECAUSE OF MEEEE!!!” she screamed.

“COVER SAYANE!!! SHIELD HER!!!” Azag screamed.

Every available body piled over Sayane, and she braced for what might finally be the end.

After everything, this isn’t how she wanted to feel when she met death. She’d been at peace with it only hours ago, yet now something foundationally full of terror had engulfed her, and she feared meeting the abyss like this. All she could do was feel Azag, Attis, and the others.

Then a light burst above them, and an angelic cry broke through the red.

Sayane opened her eyes to see something blindingly beautiful hurling downward with the same fury as Vraxlyn.

Vraxlyn looked up just in time to see the Violated Shard coming for her.

Violent, beautiful spires impaled her leg and knocked her away from the attack point. Geodic majesty sang then spun, and the Shard rushed forward again, meeting her body with a crushing thud. Her RAGE snapped and sputtered as she was flung to the ground dozens of meters from them.

Sayane cried out in relief as more energy erupted from the Shard. Vraxlyn looked down at her shattered leg as tears fell with blood. Desperate, hysterical cries poured from her mouth as her hands looked in confused fury.

“RAGE! RAGE!!” she begged.

But nothing happened.

“MRRRRUUUUURRRAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!” she screamed out as she punched herself in the head repeatedly.

The glorious Shard rose in preparation. The hundreds who remained found their footing. Azag and Saxum leapt to charge the gunnery once again.

She was overpowered.

The Shard burst forth, and Vraxlyn let out a scream of final desperation as she lifted her lance and hurled it forward.

Red streaked into white, and the lance exploded. But not before cracking a spike from the Great Harmony Shard.

Piercing, unevenly pitched sound exploded out in agony, and Sayane gasped as she watched the Shard hurl off course and onto the ground as a large chunk of its body flung into the sky.

Vraxlyn tried to stand, but her leg failed.

“SKYYYYYY SCOURGE! TO ME!!!” she ordered.

“Don’t let her escape!!!” Azag commanded.

The six warriors rose from shielding Sayane and burst forth in pursuit. But they were too slow. The massive vessel was already hurling downward to its master. Before the six could get halfway to her, Vraxlyn was already crying and crawling into her ship.

Sayane dared to stand and look at the monster.

When she did, she saw the yellow, confused eyes still locked on her as the ship’s bay door closed.

Engines fired, and Vraxlyn fled.

It was finally over.