Blood Bond

"Get behind me!" Kael snapped as he pushed me further back.

His sword arced before him and a wall of glacial ice erupted from the stone floor, crashing into the rolling tide of fire and lightning. Flames roared over the mountain of groaning ice, sending jets of steam shrieking through the sewers. Bright, scintillating arcs of lightning discharged out of the maelstrom, searing blackened lines across the ceiling above. The acrid smell of ozone stung my nostrils.

"Spread out, and attack. You know your roles." Master Alarc's calm, collected voice cut through the chaos, a command that took hold of each of us from within and spurred us into action.

He circled one hand and giant stone pillars rumbled out of the ground, boring paths through the colliding walls of ice and fire. They shot toward Lelian like battering rams, only to smash into a shimmering, invisible shell of distorted air before her. Shards of rock exploded outwards.

My eyes took in the details: the way the fast-moving shards of rocks and even clumps of dirt ricocheted away from her as if hitting a wall, while the slower-drifting steam and dust passed through the shimmering air completely undisturbed.

Tamas and Serine jumped into the paths carved out by the pillars. Tamas launched a serpent-headed stream of flame while Serine launched a razor-thin blade of wind. Both attacks struck the empty air in front of Lelian and simply… evaporated. She watched, placid and unperturbed, as the flaming serpent and wind blade broke apart into wisps of orange and white.

I was reminded of the void that I detected around her back in the prison. This was exactly what Master Alarc had warned us about: her two forms of protection. One, a 'Holy Shield' that deflected fast moving physical attacks—like the pillars and shards of rock. The second, a 'Divine Protection' that blocked all magical spells with an intent on doing harm—like the fire and air attacks.

Just as the dust settled, the air in front of Lelian wavered as if heated. Cassian appeared overhead shrouded in black tendrils. He swung the sword I had given him down at her, its blade glowing a malevolent blue. It sliced easily through the shimmering Holy Shield.

Lelian however, was already on the move. She swung her staff and a wave of water caught Cassian mid swing, sweeping him away.

"So the wolf pup has teeth, but I'm not so helpless in combat. Hmm…?" She swiped a hand through the air, her fingers tracing the invisible gash that only I could perceive through the molecular view.

Perhaps she had some way of sensing the damage in her protection as well.

Frowning, her eyes shot to the sword in Cassian's hand as he got back up.

"That sword, where did you…?" After a few steps toward Cassian, she paused, looking down at the fresh greenery on the ground beneath her. Laughter shook her body. "Really, Alarc? Are you trying to attack me with actual sprouts?"

Lifting her staff from the ground, Lelian gave a contemptuous swipe that set the greenery aflame, charring the leaves to ash.

More attacks came down, stalactites falling from above, ice spikes shooting toward her, more flame serpents and wind blades, all rained down upon her. But it seemed that the gash in her protection had already mended, and all the attacks exploded harmlessly against it.

Lelian—still untouched with just dust settling around her—smiled. "Now, it's my turn."

She raised her staff, but her eyes snapped wide as leaves suddenly sprouted along its length. In the next instant, thick vines erupted from the wood, snaking around her arm and forcing her to toss the staff aside with a cry.

"Damn you, underhanded fiend!" she shrieked.

Alarc stepped forward, flashing Lelian a toothy grin. "That's right, I still have a few tricks beneath my sleeves."

Lelian seethed, steam seemingly rising out of her. "No more of this! Blinding Light!"

White blotted out all the other colors. I covered my eyes, but the white was so intense that it came through my eyelids. The data for the 'Cloaking Skin' flashed in my mind—Opsins and Reflectins—proteins for the light memorizing cells and the corresponding reflector cells. I willed my blood to the surface, forming those light memorizing cells and absorbing some of the whiteness just as the blinding light faded.

I kept forming more of them in my skin. I knew what was coming next.

Darker colors bled back into the world, and the figure that took shape in front of me was Lelian's. Her sculptured features grinned softly down at me. "You did something to our artifacts didn't you? None of my teams are responding. I sensed something off about them. Tell me what you did or…" She licked her lips with a sharp tongue. "Well, lessons would go on regardless."

Shroud Step!

One of the elves that I had turned coalesced behind her, stabbing with a dagger that glanced harmlessly off her shield. Rats converged on her, some were stopped by the shimmering barrier but others, moving more slowly, skittered through.

Lelian stomped one flat with a wet crunch. She raised an eyebrow and looked into the lifeless eyes of the elf that had been knocked back. "Oh, not quite alive," she murmured, her gaze snapping back to me as I was standing back up. "A little like you… Here's a gift to all of you."

She raised her hand, and that glow rained down upon us. My rats writhed and flattened. The elf's eyes rolled back as he crumpled.

It was acid upon my skin, peeling it back. The layers of light memorizing cells were being stripped away before I could memorize the glow. I focused on forming more of those cells, praying that one would last long enough before the searing glow rendered them inert, turning them back to normal blood cells. Raw agony, a firestorm raging all over my flayed body, tore scream after scream from my throat.

I was dimly aware of Kael and Meris attacking Lelian and being blown away by some spell.

The others joined the fray. Cries of anger mixed with my screams of pain. I heard spells detonating, the rolling thunder, and roaring flames. The ground shook. Flashes of red, blue, and green light strobed against my eyelids as I collapsed to my knees.

"Solar Wind!"

Lelian's voice pierced through the din. Light rippled past me, followed by shockwaves of turbulent air, and then… absolute silence.

"Stay away from her!" Cassian's voice rang out.

Down on all fours, dripping blood onto the stone, I saw him through my pain-addled vision, Cassian materializing from the shadows, swinging his distorted blade at Lelian. But a wave of physical light struck him head-on and sent him flying back. His dark blade clattered against the ground.

Then it clicked! One cell, just one caught the wavelengths of that glow before turning inert. But that was all I needed. My blood rushed to form the reflector cells in my patchwork skin and my exposed flesh. They reflected back the glow, shielding me and my open wounds began to close.

I need time.

Lelian picked up the sword, turning it over in her hand. "This is… bone? And… metal. A composite?"

As she was lost in contemplation, I chose my path. It was time for my backup of a backup. No matter what the others might think of me as a result.

I have to survive!

I sent some of the rats that had fed on the monster heart toward another fallen elf. The elf sat up, grabbed a rat, raised it to its mouth, and tore it open with its teeth, consuming it. He ate two more rats and my blood in his body began to merge with the blood in rats he'd consumed.

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He now has all the necessary materials.

His muscles bulged, twisting and growing as his back broadened, tearing the fabric of his shirt to shreds. Leathery wings erupted from his shoulder blades, stretched taut over a frame of jagged bone and claw. His fingers elongated, twisting as the nails hardened into vicious claws.

Lelian meanwhile was testing the balance of the sword. The blade hissed through the air as she swung it. "Not bad." Her eyes traced down the length of it. "It took dark-affinity magic, and cut through my protection. That distortion… could it really be?"

She raised the blade to her nose and sniffed at it. Then her icy blue eyes narrowed as they regarded me again. "Princess, did this… come from you?"

I recoiled back, my knees making a squishing sound against the pool of blood beneath me.

"You truly are a wonder…"

BOOM!

The air above her exploded into flames as a bone sword slammed down upon her shimmering shield. Lelian cowered at the massive demon towering over her, but then realized her shield held and straightened back up.

Unfortunately, the elf that was converted only had a fire-affinity Soul Seed, so he couldn't form a vorpal blade to cut through Lelian's defenses.

"A demon?" She looked up, mesmerized by the monstrosity hacking away at her shield. A loud crack, and a flicker of hope kindled.

Her spell has a limit!

But then, she turned to me, catching me in the middle of shambling up over my violently shaking legs.

"Oh, are you getting used to the healing? Truly tenacious." Her lips curled into a crooked smile. "But you really think this thing would stop me? Solar Wind!"

A torrent of golden light surged toward me and the demon. He was lifted into the air despite his size and sent flying down a tunnel. It hit me hard with physical force, throwing me backwards until my back and head struck the sphere.

A hollow ring echoed in my skull as pain reverberated through my entire body, spots swarming my vision. My body went limp, and I slid down against the hard casing.

My head listed to one side, and I saw everyone else. Master Alac sitting with his back against the wall, his chest heaving up and down, his face bloodied. Tamas lay on his back, his legs twisted at impossible angles. Serine was crawling, inch by inch toward Cassian who had been slammed against a crater in the wall. And closer, the forms of Meris and Kael lay face down on the ground.

No!

I placed a bloody hand upon the bomb. Desperate, I reached into it through the molecular view, I reached past the mesh of fire magic stones, past the thick tamper shell, and into the radioactive uranium core. I could feel the energy humming inside—the alpha particles zipping madly past, the heavy atoms vibrating with contained fury.

I knew the dangers of that radiation—this was far worse than chemo—but there was no other choice.

From within that impossible, microscopic world I carved a channel between the core and me. The radiation poured over my blood. It should have been annihilation, but instead, I felt my cells begin to ignite, heating up, energizing.

"Get over here!" Chains of light wrapped around me and yanked me over to Lelian. I was held in the air by the links of bright yellow, strapped tight around my blood-soaked dress.

The sight of it made me chuckle, a dry, ragged sound. At least I'm wearing red.

Lelian's long fingers dug into my cheeks, squeezing my face. "We can't have you ruining our little gift to Aethelgard, can we? Now, since my healing has stopped working, let's try a Light Lance."

A bright spike shot through my chest, adding another drop to the sea of agony. "Just like your son. How predictable." I laughed and coughed my blood out at her.

It was just blood, a mist of blood drops, moving slowly through the air. It passed harmlessly through her shimmering shield and landed, dotting her pristine white robe, the pale skin of her arms, her face. Like in the dungeon cell, she didn't seem to mind having my blood on her. After all, it was just normal blood.

Normal irradiated blood. My blood.

It took her a second or two to notice. A flicker of confusion crossed her serene features, then her eyes widened as her skin began to blister.

"What… is this? IT BURNS!" she shrieked, her face contorting in what, to me, was deeply satisfying pain. Her fingers clawed at her face as she swung away.

My fingers found the satchel at my side. Inside, I had brought Astrid's cuffs. I reached for the dark-affinity crystals within them. My palm-fang erupted, and my mind carved a channel between crystal and fang, turning it vorpal.

With its edge now glowing a malevolent blue, I sliced through the light chains and dropped to the ground. I advanced on Lelian. Her face was still twisted in agony, but she saw me coming.

"Blinding Light!" she cried out.

But I was ready. I closed my eyes and willed the reflector cells in my skin to activate using the signature of the blinding light that I had memorized previously. White light seared through my eyelids, but this time, the scream that came in response was Lelian's.

When the colors seeped back into my vision, she was still stumbling blindly, clutching at her eyes.

"This ends now."

My vorpal palm-fang stabbed toward her, slicing through her shield, through her protection, right for her throat.

Everything froze. The dust in the air, the smoke from the charred ground, the particles of light from the broken chain, all hung in the air.

I tried to push the fang forward, but it wouldn't budge.

"Lelian, Lelian, what a mess you got yourself into. Did I not warn you about dallying too much in the affairs of my realm?" a masculine voice spoke from my lips. It wasn't my other voice from Earth. This one sounded older.

CLANG!

Lelian let go of the sword and immediately dropped to her knees. Her face still twitched from the blisters of my irradiated blood. "Great Antara!" She declared reverently. "My apologies, I didn't mean to overstep myself."

My face felt different, more angular. I had a sinking feeling I looked like the statue in the antechamber before the Wardstone.

No! I had her! Why would you save her?

A chuckle left my lips. I tried to stop it, but my body wouldn't respond. "You have more important matters to attend to than playing in the games of men, do you not?"

What important matters? I searched for an answer, and a vision slammed into my mind.

A vast room stretched into darkness beyond my sight. The only light came from rows upon rows of black metal pods, each capped with a pane of glowing, green glass.

My focus was pulled to a single pod, shaped like an elongated egg, with tubes snaking around its surface. Inside, submerged in the eerie green light, a man floated with his eyes closed. Embedded in his chest was a crystal. A Soul Seed? But it was dull and cloudy, obscuring the rune. If one was even there.

Now, now, no peeking. I was yanked back to the view of Lelian prostrating before me.

"I have, my Lord. I thought perhaps this would speed up our work." She cleared her throat. Her face was still pressed against the ground. "By securing more resources."

"That would've come naturally." I spread my hands magnanimously toward her. "Now, I had considered not interfering. But since the work I entrusted you is so close to fruition, I will give you one more chance."

She raised her head, tears trailing over her cheeks. "Thank you, my Lord! I am sorry, I did not realize she is your…"

My hand slashed through the air, cutting her off. "Silence! You are not to talk of this matter. Now, I will send you on your way."

"Please my Lord. My son…" she pleaded, looking back at Jarlen laying on the ground.

I snapped my fingers, and both mother and son faded from view.

You asshole! Do you know how many times she tried to kill me! And nearly did! She killed my friends, my attendants! Meris, Kael... I couldn't even move my eyes to look over at them.

"They still live, my Chosen. For taking your quarry, I shall restore them in trade. Though perhaps that is too little. You have a request of me?"

A request from a god. Is this like a wish? I want to save my family, and bring peace to the Concord.

"Don't you have that in hand? Is it not better to bring that about by your own hands?"

A wish… Can you cure my cancer on Earth?

"That is beyond my powers." I brushed a finger across my jawline. "However, I can give you a few more years. Is that acceptable?"

Wow, some god you are. I wanted to refuse, but a few more years. That was better than three months. I would have time for high school. A few more years with my friends… with Maya and Mom, with Naomi.

Fine, I will take it.

A slow, satisfied smile spread across my lips. "Good, now it is time for you to return. Your deeds await."

Wait! Tell me what is going on? What's with the demons? What was that room that I saw? Are you actually trying to incite world war? Please… aren't you the god of wisdom?

My hand waved dismissively, as if clearing the air. "Don't fret over such trifles, we will be one soon enough." The voice that attempted to soothe only brought horror.

I surveyed the carnage before me. Cracked rocks, charred-black lines, flames frozen mid-flicker, and everywhere, splatters of blood. My blood. It stained my hands, filling the grooves around my fingernails with dark crimson. My fingers touched my smiling lips. "But I think you already know. The flip side of the God of Wisdom…"

I felt my face changing back. The foreign presence receded, leaving my own voice to finish the thought in the sudden, ringing silence.

"...is the Goddess of War."