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Chapter 29: Night of the Ophidia

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Midaharian capital city of Ras Almal

Citizens of the capital were accustomed to seeing objects moving in the sky. Objects made of wood and steel, perhaps, but never fire breathing serpents. Half a dozen winged serpents pummeled the capital with molten flames sending its people fleeing for their lives.

Considered docile and passive to humans, the beasts were a rare sight for many. Some were trained as mounts, but the ones attacking Ras Amal were riderless.

Several descended on buildings and on the ground, spreading fire indiscriminately. The emperor’s royal compound was no exception. One of Emperor Taimoor's generals, Isa, hurried a group of the emperor’s servants away from the beasts’ devastation. Beneath the compound sprawled an extensive labyrinth, designed exclusively as the emperor’s means of escaping the city.

They were of no use to him now.

As the Ophidia demolished what they couldn’t burn, the escape tunnel would eventually collapse on itself. If there was a way to lead them away from the compound, civilians might have a chance. Isa ran past a guard escorting another group of women and the young through the compound’s walls. “Not that way! General!” the guard yelled, grabbing Isa’s attention. “An Ophidia is right behind us!”

“Just get them to the tunnels!” Isa urged, continuing on his way.

The walls around him crumbled violently against the weight of an Ophidia's tail. A giant serpent stood before the general, smoke twisting a path in the air from its jaws. Isa quickly turned back and ducked into another hallway, narrowly avoiding the flames that caught his jacket.

With the Ophidia a breath behind him, Isa leaped over a staircase, landing two floors below. He slipped out of his burning jacket as the serpent coiled down the stairs. The dining room was far too small, and the stairs were the only exit. But jumping out a window was tempting if he could get by the huge beast. Swinging its tail about wildly, the Ophidia broke every window and thrashed the walls.

As it slowly glided across marble tiles, Isa turned up tables and chairs; anything to delay whatever death the beast had planned for him. Flames stirred in the serpent’s deadly mouth and it eagerly released them. Isa dropped to the floor, expecting a fiery conclusion to his brief life.

To his surprise, the serpent’s fire hadn’t reached him despite the vicious heat on his skin. Isa looked up. The Ophidia's fire breath was kept back by a shield almost as tall as the man holding it.

“Idris?!” Isa said.

Behind the protection of the shield, Idris pushed himself off the ground. One giant leap brought him within striking distance of the serpent’s head. His sword sliced through the beast, but instead of falling lifelessly to the floor, the Ophidia’s body shattered into bright fragments.

“Is that how those things die?” Idris said, throwing the steaming shield to the floor. He turned to his fellow general and asked, "It didn't get you, did it?"

“Idris, you’re supposed to be dead!”

“I almost was. Going after Aiden was a huge, colossal mistake.”

Isa extended his hand, expecting something from Idris. “Give it to me.”

“Give what to you?”

“My rune, you thief.”

Idris shook his head. “That kid vaporized it. He would have gotten mine, too, if I was using it. Lahan was right; he is bad news.”

Isa walked over to the window, observing the other Ophidias laying waste to the city. “There’s a lot of that going around lately.”

“Why are the Ophidia attacking us? Are they under Ahrman control?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea. But now that you’re back from the dead, we might be able to save what’s left of the capital.”

“Are you the only one defending the place?”

“Defending? More like running for my life.”

All of a sudden, the two generals were sent flying across the room as the walls exploded before them. Backflipping in midair, Idris took control of his fall and caught Isa before they hit the floor. He dragged him away from what was left of the wall and rested his limp body against a table.

“Isa?” Idris said, peering at his comrade’s blood-soaked vest.

Glass being crushed under heavy boots demanded his attention. Bearing flimsy chainmail, a skeletal figure twice the height of average men with twice as many arms stood behind him. Long curved swords were in two of its hands, a hand cannon occupied the others.

Idris scooped up Isa seconds before the warrior skeleton fired its weapon, blowing a hole through the floor. The general quickly bolted out of the compound, up an exterior wall, and jumped down the other side. If he could get Isa to the stables and on a horse, one of his problems would be solved. He always did want to ride one of the emperor’s fancy horses with the ears turned inward.

“Idris..? What are... you doing? Drop my dead ass!” Isa muttered.

“I can’t hear you!”

“You blasted...fool! You wouldn’t be so stubborn if I had my rune!”

Another warrior skeleton blocked the road to the stables. Turning sharply, it fired its hand cannon at the two. Idris dropped his comrade in time to deflect the projectile with his sword. He sent the next projectile screaming back to its sender, blowing the skeleton into thousands of tiny remnants.

“On your feet, soldier,” Idris told Isa as he helped him up.

Distant rumblings and muffled explosions rattled the night, but the emperor’s stable was quiet. Too quiet. With its marble floors, glistening chandeliers, interior air filter, and an indoor swimming pool, calling the two-story building a stable was inaccurate. It was a palace for some of the finest bred horses in the world.

But doors of gold and walls of reinforced stone weren’t enough to keep the Ophidia out. One of the serpents slowly forced down a horse too big for its mouth. Another wrapped its coils around a mount, crushing its bones.

“I’m getting sick of those things!” Idris exclaimed, watching the feast. He quickly ducked behind a stack of hay barrels with Isa.

“Stop..being.. stupid and leave me, Idris!”

“You're going to the medical center, Isa. Even if I have to drag you over there.”

“The center was one of the first to be evacuated. Everyone fled to the tunnels.”

“Right, I forgot about those. I guess the emperor made it out, too?”

“Idris, the emperor is dead.”

Hooves beating against gravel instantly beckoned the two general’s attention. A group of friendly faces charged up the compound’s many steps, led by General Badr. But as the men were catapulted through the air by the hand cannon wielding skeletons, it was hard to tell if they were reinforcements or just more lambs to the slaughter.

After being knocked off his horse, Badr rolled behind a pillar. A barrage of projectiles quickly ate away at the stone structure. Badr stole a glance at the enemy firing upon him.

“Badr!” Idris yelled from across the yard.

Badr looked over his shoulders. “Have ghosts invaded us as well?”

“Tell me you’re using Tears’ Rebirth!”

“Idris, you’re alive?!”

“Yes! I’m alive! Now, what about that Rebirth!?”

“I have it!”

“Did I ever tell you how our ‘light speed’ maneuver worked?!”

“Dozens of times, Idris!”

“Great! I go first!” Idris sprinted from his position and charged the skeleton warriors. As they fired their weapons, Badr scorched their eyes with scintillating white light. Taking immediate advantage of the enemies’ blindness, the generals cut the skeleton warriors down. Their bodies disintegrate upon impact.

“What in the world were those things?” Badr inquired, examing one of the enemy's hand cannons. “And where did they find such weaponry?”

Idris shrugged. “They're dead. That's all that matters to me right now. Is your horse still alive? Isa needs medical attention.”

“Is he in bad shape?”

“Bad enough.”

“We’ll have to take him through the tunnels to another city. The center was destroyed by Ophidias.”

“Right! I’ll go get him!”

Badr turned to the damaged compound that had been the home of countless rulers. “Idris, how’s the emperor?”

“I think he’s dead.”

Khalina Island

Toting small empty buckets, a woman from the island entered the hut; Aiden’s hut.

A watchful guard only allowed certain individuals inside, Mishael being one of them. Despite being the one who 'saved the world' by murdering his own nephew, Jaff found himself on the ‘no visitors’ list.

That didn’t stop him from watching and wondering.

Have I betrayed my brother as well?

Damnation was already spreading and it wasn’t going to disappear with Aiden’s death. It was just significantly weaker without his body, his powers over Rebirths.

Who was going to challenge it? Was there anyone strong enough to stop Damnation?

Exhaling deeply, Jaff ran his hands over his head. Sleep was a friend that rarely visited him nowadays. Images of Aiden smiling, laughing, delivering packages for Mister Laul back in Khalm haunted his waking hours.

Is this what Malik would have wanted?

“Jaff,” said Mishael, ripping the man from his thoughts. “Why do you torture yourself by being here? You should return to the mainland and put this behind you.”

“How long until you wrap him?”

“It’s not that quick of a process, young man. Twenty-four hours are needed to completely drain him, then we begin the process of removing his internal organs. If the Damnation rune ever found his body, it would be an empty shell.”

“I would like to see him before I go.”

“Jaff, I will have someone escort you off the island. You don’t need to trouble yourself with Aiden any longer.”

Jaff stood over Mishael, clenching his fist. “Aiden was my brother’s only child, my nephew, and my friend. He was never my trouble.”

“Come,” she said, wrapping her arm around his. “I will walk with you to the beach. Lay your grief on my ears.”

“No, I’m fine,” Jaff said, freeing his arm. “I just have to...accept what must be done. I thank you for your hospitality, Mishael.”

He turned and walked away, only raising his head when he passed Aiden’s hut. As one of the women exited it, he caught a glimpse of his nephew’s body.