Heretical Edge

There were so many reasons we couldn't waste time playing around with these newly-infested Fomorians. But the two at the top of the list were the fact that actually killing too many of these guys might in some way affect the future, and the longer this took the bigger chance of Cronus himself showing up. I had no idea how dangerous that guy actually was at this point in history, but I sure as hell didn't want to risk it. We had to push past these guys and get through the rift.

Unfortunately, the size of that ship in our way was going to make that a bit more complicated. We could either go through, over, under, or around. That last one was right out. Going around would take way too much time. Time we didn't have right now. Under was kind of the same story. There were ways to do it, but it would mean stopping for too long. We couldn't stop now.

But through and over? Those options might have some legs. Even as we raced with the rest of our little herd straight toward that crashed ship, I conferred quickly with Tabbris and Locke. It would've been nice to jump into the Archive so we could have an entire conversation in a few seconds, but it still took me a moment of calm focus on the outside to actually jump in there. We didn't have a moment. And we definitely didn't have anything remotely resembling calm focus.

So, we just made it a very quick talk over those next few steps. The bright part of one of them being a version of myself, and the other being a girl who had possessed me for a decade, was that we communicated very easily. It didn't take much for all of us to be on the same page. And it was a good thing we were, because this next part was going to take all of us working together.

Percy didn't know what was going on. And yet, from her perch on top of the giant Cerberus, she just kept him charging straight at that crashed ship. I saw her glance back at me, watching to see what I did. But she didn't swerve. She just kept him running forward, clearly trusting that I had some sort of plan beyond just making the big dog slam headsfirst into that reinforced hull.

As for Cerberus himself, he was doing just fine. Those metal coil 'snakes' of his had emerged and were shooting lasers in every direction, guided by the two heads on either side while the one in the middle focused on where he was going. The lasers came in rapid staccato bursts, hitting any of the Cronus Fomorians who tried to get anywhere near the Patchworks around him.

Yeah, the giant robocanine was focusing on protecting those guys with his lasers. He used his massive bulk, powerful paws, and even his three mouths to deal with any that came near him.

Between him and the Mirandas on those Patchworks, even if they had to share her powers amongst themselves, the group was in pretty good shape. At least for the next few seconds, and with any luck at all, a few seconds was all we were going to need for this plan.

First things first, I picked up the pace, using my boost to get a burst of speed. At the same time, four of my ghosts came flying in to pick up the Fomorians on my back. I didn't have a chance to explain anything to them, it would have to wait for later when I could apologize. For now, I just let the ghosts try to reassure them as they picked them up and kept flying forward with the very understandably terrified pair. Then I pushed off, lunging into the air while shifting back to my humanoid self. That jump carried me all the way onto Cerberus's back, where I landed right behind Percy. Catching myself as smoothly as possible, I pointed straight ahead at the ship that was looming in front of us, still disgorging more infested Fomorians by the second. "Keep going!"

Those four ghosts, by that point, had brought their charges right up to set them down next to me, where they dropped and clung to a couple convenient handholds that I was pretty sure were there for this purpose. Or maybe not this purpose specifically, but at least for people to hold onto.

As for those two Fomorians themselves, they nearly lost their grips and fell right off when they turned to look at me. I saw their eyes go wide with shock before they turned slightly to look back the way we had come from. Back toward that statue of me that was still standing, visible through the shattered wall. As Cerberus ran, the force of the giant metal canine's racing steps nearly bucking everyone off, they kept flicking their gazes back and forth between me and the statue.

I didn't have time to react to them or explain anything. By that point, Locke had finished her part of the plan. Which, actually, was to switch places with Fathom. Fortunately, the other girl was in our so-called waiting room, so it was a fairly quick change. Locke jumped out while Fathom jumped in. And it was none-too-soon, because the hull of the ship was looming straight ahead. In another couple steps, we'd slam right into it. Which would be a pretty quick end to the escape.

But we had something else in mind besides turning our whole group into a giant mess of metal and flesh pancakes. As soon as Fathom was in place, she focused on Percy, Cerberus, and the two Fomorians still laying there clinging to those handholds. She used her power to let people pass through solid objects like it was water, so the ship itself wouldn't be an issue. At least, not for them. I spoke a few quick words, telling Persephone to keep going through and that it would be fine, enough to reassure her and Cerberus that I hadn't completely lost my mind. Fortunately, they both already knew about that particular power so it wouldn't be that much of a surprise. Except something told me they would've charged headfirst right into that ship even if they didn't, just because they trusted me that much.

After getting those few quick words out, I looked up. Tabbris had been busy that whole time. While I focused on talking, and Fathom gave the 'swim through solid objects' ability to Percy, Cerberus, and those two Fomorians, Tabbris was empowering our ghosts and giving them new directions. Very important directions that would determine how this whole escape went over the next couple seconds. Because as we'd already decided, there wasn't time to go around this ship. Again, the best choices were to go through it, like these guys were about to do, or go over.

In this case, it was that second one. The swarm of ghosts came flying in, a whole contingent of them abandoning their previous job of distracting those other ships. Leaving only about half of the ghost army on that bit was a risk, but getting everyone to the rift right now was more important.

The ghosts found their way to each of those ten Patchworks and Eurso. Just a few for the smaller ones, all the way up to a dozen or so for each of the big woolly mammoth ogres. They grabbed on and lifted the Patchworks, along with their Fomorian and Miranda riders, off the ground to carry them all the way over the crashed ship. We could hear cries of surprise and fear from… well honestly from the Patchworks and the Fomorians alike, which was fair. But at least the plan was working. Even Eurso went along with it, though I could tell he was nervous about being so high up and was just trying not to cause a fuss or upset the Fomorian passenger who was riding him. He was definitely getting treats after this.

Glancing up just enough to see that the ghosts were doing their thing took about a second, which was long enough for Cerberus to reach the ship. In another step, he'd be in it. Which, considering I wasn't actually being included in the swimming through solid matter thing, meant staying there was a bad idea. But I was already dealing with that, launching myself upward with a quick bit of help from my rocket burst. Between that and an added kinetic blast from the staff that appeared in my hand with a thought, I was carried up and over the ship, with Patchwork-toting ghosts on either side. Directly below, we could sense Cerberus stampeding all the way through the ship.

Even with my rocket burst and the staff, I wouldn't have made it all the way over the ship in that single leap. It wasn't exactly small. But I maneuvered the acceleration rings around in front of me, doubling my speed. That was enough for me to reach the far side, coming down just… well, slightly ahead of Cerberus. But, at the last second, I used the object-slowing power on my own clothes, delaying my landing just enough for the giant robot dog to come bursting through the hull below so I could land right on his back once more. An instant later, I pivoted, shifted my staff into its bow form, and sent an energy arrow right at the feet of the infested Fomorians who had just started to scramble out of a hatch right there as they tried to chase Cerberus out of the ship. Which, well, the fact that they were chasing the bus-sized three-headed robot dog kind of told me that Cronus had already turned off any sense of self preservation they might've had. After all, these weren't the Fomorians who were enhanced by hundreds of thousands of years of bullshit bio-science. They were just normal Fomorians infested by corrupted Seosten minds.

In any case, the arrow struck the ground by their feet and exploded into a concussive blast that sent all three of them flying. But I couldn't feel any sense of satisfaction at the sight. Those Fomorians were no less innocent than the passengers we had with us right now. They were just innocent victims we hadn't managed to get to in time. Hell, their Seosten halves were innocent too, just more victims of Cronus's corruption. And eventually, they would be forced to commit some of the most horrific atrocities the universe had ever seen. It was just very bad all around.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Oh well, I didn't have time to worry about that right now. The point here was to get away with enough of these intact, living Fomorians to… well I wasn't sure exactly what could happen with just a few dozen of them, to be honest. It wasn't enough to bring the whole species back just like that. But maybe that would be enough genetic samples to do some useful science stuff with?

Right, right, get away first, worry about bringing the entire species back from pseudo-extinction later. For the moment, we still had to actually get everyone safely to the rift and back to Earth.

All around us, the ghosts were setting the Patchworks and Eurso back down after carrying them over the ship, letting them keep running in the direction of the rift. The Mirandas were keeping them on target, making sure they moved the right way and didn't get turned around or confused. Especially with all the dust and debris in the air from those ships that were still shooting occasionally. The distraction and sabotage ghosts were doing their best to make sure those random shots didn't actually hit anyone, but I had no idea how long they could keep that up.

"Keep going!" I shouted over my shoulder while springing away from Cerberus and back the way we'd come. I needed to cover them, and the others. These Cronus Fomorians might not be the same threat level they'd someday become, but they weren't helpless either. Especially with the--

There, I knew it. The ship we'd just passed over and through might've been on the ground, but it wasn't helpless. Just as I had that thought, one of the cannons pivoted around to aim after Cerberus. I wasn't sure how much damage a laser meant to shoot down actual capital ships would actually do to the big guy, but I also wasn't about to let them find out. Or rather, we weren't. We, in this case, included Locke. She had switched back in place of Fathom right after Cerberus made it through the ship. As the cannon was taking aim, we were all working together.

First, I summoned a small coin to my hand and hurled it right into the small portal that Tabbris made appear in front of us. The other end of that portal was right in front of the cannon itself. In the same moment, I used the power meant to make objects bigger or smaller to make the thing grow all the way up to manhole cover right after it passed through the portal. It was just slightly bigger than the opening of that cannon barrel. Which wouldn't have meant much. After all, a ship-mounted laser versus an enlarged coin a couple feet across was absolutely no contest.

But that was where Locke came in. Right as the giant coin made it to the exact position it needed to be in to block the barrel of the cannon, she used her stasis power on it. Using the stasis on a living being required their permission and acceptance. But plain old ordinary objects could be frozen any time. The enlarged coin was completely frozen like that, plugging the end of the barrel, totally locked in stasis so almost nothing could affect it. Which meant that, when the thing fired a second later, all that energy hit the stasis-frozen coin and instantly burst out the sides of the cannon, completely destroying it.

Someone might've thought that coordinating something like that would take more time than it was worth, or that we'd screw each other up and trip over one another as we all tried to do the same thing, having three minds in one body. But it wasn't like that at all. By that point, as soon as one of us thought something, the other two knew about it as easily as if it was our own thought. One of us came up with the plan of what to do about the gun and knew what their part would be, and the other two sorted out theirs at very nearly the exact same time. In the brief time since we'd come together like this, we'd melded even more than I'd thought was possible. It wasn't like we were three very separate people coming up with a plan and talking about it. No, it was more like we were three parts of one person putting the plan together and knowing immediately what each of us would do in it.

Maybe that was weird, but that's how it felt. We were very much in sync without even trying, even more so than I had already been with just Tabbris riding copilot. It was like having the Flique with me had made everything about running with multiple minds in one body much easier.

To the right, coming around the side of the crashed ship, there was some sort of big, two-legged walking tank thing. It looked a little bit like one of those AT-STs from Star Wars, except just slightly bigger, and the body was shaped like a sideways pyramid, with the tip pointed our way. A tip that was glowing with power as it very clearly took aim to fire.

At the same time, one of the smaller ships, a fighter of some sort, came spinning down out of the sky almost directly over our heads, escaping the distraction of the ghosts. And slightly to the left, a squad of Cronus Fomorians poured out of one of the fallen ship's hatches, shooting at the fleeing survivors.

Three problems, and just like before, each of us immediately knew what we were going to do about them. For the walking tank thing, Tabbris produced an enchanted stone from my supply and gave a quick toss right at the thing's feet before making our mouth snap the command word for the spell on it. A spell that, just like when we'd used the same thing against one of those Revenants back on the planet now known as Rahanvael, created a ten-foot wide, twenty-foot deep pit for it to fall into. An instant later, my mouth said the word to end that spell, sealing about three-quarters of the machine underground. It definitely wasn't getting out of there anytime soon.

As for the infested Fomorians with their raised weapons, Locke had that situation in hand. A sharp whistle sent a giant flock of what looked like at least six or seven different types of local birds flying down into them. The birds varied in size from only a few inches across, all the way up to being almost as large as a human child. They divebombed right into that group, talons raking across faces, grabbing guns, beaks biting ears, anything they could do to distract them.

Then there was that fighter ship, already leveling out after that spinning dive so it could take aim at the fleeing Fomorians and Cerberus. The thing was shaped like the spade symbol in a deck of cards, with the raised bubble of the cockpit at the back of the ship (or base of the spade), and half a dozen raised gun emplacements all over the top and bottom of the main body that could pivot to face in any direction independently. Right now, all of them were pointed at the others.

Yeah, for some reason, it just ignored me. Well, that was its mistake. My hand rose with the staff as I triggered one of the spells I'd stored in the gold metal bracer attached to it. Specifically, the spell that summoned a familiar coffin. It came flying down out of the sky, slamming full-force into the top of the ship. That was enough to make the vessel buck downwards, sending the lasers it was trying to shoot at Cerberus and the rest sailing off harmlessly into the dirt nearby.

The impact did not make the ship crash. But the coffin cracked open, and Penny Dreadful came leaping right out, landing in a crouch right in front of the reinforced cockpit, where the pilot sat staring at her in confusion. Well, as much confusion as a Cronus-infested being could show.

They didn't have long to figure out what to do about the hitchhiker. The little girl golem gave a bright, terrifying grin before hurling herself that way, crashing right through the glass. She made a point of keeping the pilot busy, scrambling all over him without actually killing the guy or doing too much real damage. Meanwhile, her feet very deliberately kicked the controls enough to make the ship go spinning sideways before crashing into the dirt. The Cronus-Fomorian was stunned, and Penny leapt free before bounding over to me to crouch by my leg with a questioning look.

"Yup, we're going!" The three problems were dealt with, all at roughly the same time, and the way was… well, not clear, but about as clear as it was gonna get. Time to get the hell out of here. Even as I said that, Tabbris was making our body pivot around, while Locke pointed the staff and used one of the stored spells to send a small tornado spinning into another Fomorian group.

It didn't take long to catch up with the others, not with my boost, acceleration rings, a couple rocket bursts, and a little assistance from my staff. I came down right on Cerberus's back just as they reached the rift. Immediately, it was obvious that Mekkta had been busy. At least twenty bodies were littered around the place, along with a fair number of armored tanks. As for the woman herself, she didn't even look slightly winded at all. She really was a one-person army.

Half of the Patchworks had passed through the rift by that point, with the rest already on their way as Mekkta almost idly waved them through, looking like a bored traffic cop motioning for the next set of cars to take their turn through the intersection. When she saw me hop down off Cerberus so we could unload him (the rift wasn't big enough for the giant dog to go through at full size), she called out, "I'm not one to run from a fight, but there's an awful lot of problems incoming!"

"Yeah, go, go!" I was already working to usher the terrified and confused Fomorians out of Cerberus's open side, while Percy and several Mirandas guided them to the rift and sent them through. There was a lot of gesturing involved, but at least they weren't resisting. Then again, given what their other choices were, maybe it wasn't surprising that they'd listen to us right now.

Soon, the Fomorians were through, with Eurso right behind them. Miranda looked at me as she recalled all her duplicates so there was only one of her left, and I waved her on. She went through. Then Cerberus followed after shrinking back down to his usual self. Mekkta was next, and I sent Percy after her, promising to be right behind her.

I'd dismissed my ghosts by then. Which meant that was it, just me and Penny Dreadful left. As we moved to the rift, something caught my eye. Someone. A figure standing on top of that crashed ship in the distance. I could barely see him from here, but I knew who it was. Cronus. He stood right there staring at me. I saw him turn slightly, taking in the statue back in the city. The statue of me. He looked that way, then turned back to stare at me again.

For a long few seconds, both of us seemed frozen like that, our gazes locked on one another. We might've stayed like that forever. But I felt Penny touch my leg, and that was enough to snap me out of it. I turned with her, grabbed the golem girl's hand, and jumped through the rift, leaving it to close behind me.

We were gone. We'd made it off the Fomorian world with the survivors. But Ehn wasn't here, and I had no idea when or where the other end of this rift was leading us. One thing was for sure though. Cronus had seen me during his invasion of that world.

And he'd had the intervening several hundred thousand years to wonder who I was.