Journey West 20: Bug Caller's Fortress

    A crackling fire in the night. The two parties sleep around it; around them are major creature wards. Hollia sits stirring the flames watching the others rest.

   “So many people,” she says, “too many.”

    She picks up Lin Lin and wraps her around her waist like a belt; Lin Lin holding her own tail between her teeth. Hollia sneaks over to Rhulan and gently shakes her shoulder. Rhulan rises asking, “huh? What it is Hollia?”

    Hollia grabs Rhulan’s hand and forces her to her feet. Hollia aims her staff at the others shouting, “Goddess Wind!”.

    The spinning wind carries the others into the air, screaming as the turbulent current awakens them suddenly from their sleep. Hollia runs, pulling Rhulan behind her by the hand as Lin Lin holds on.

    “This is how it should be!” yells Hollia as she runs with a smile on her face, “just you and me, adventuring across the world. This is how it should have been from the start, we’ll see so much together, go on quests, adventures, stop evil warlords, bandits, collect treasures, and see all sorts of amazing things just you and me!”

    “Hollia?” says Rhulan.

    “Yeah?” says Hollia turning, but instead of Rhulan there is a blinding light.

    “You awake yet girl?” asks Rhulan.

   “Huh?” says Hollia as she opens her eyes to see Lin Lin looking at her and Rhulan standing over them.

    “Oh right,” says Hollia as she gets up and collect her things, the smell of breakfast filling the air as she does so.

     “What a weird dream.” thinks Hollia as she rolls up her bedding.

    ******

    It has taken more than a day, as they head south Rhulan, and Vondroncha can both sense the signal. The town that had fallen to the controlled arthropods was near the edge of the signal’s range it would seem, and left as a trap. Rhulan surmised possibly to see how much control and for long such a thing would last at its fringes. Their path here has been fraught with many more battles with giant bugs, mostly scorpions. Against their combined groups they didn’t stand a chance.

    Gold Wolf remembers the last Giant Scorpion they fought, Rhulan had taken it on single handedly, swapping its stinger aside and then blasting it in the face with rapid fire bursts while saying, “Hokai-Haue-Raue.”

     He remembers the look in her eyes and the smile on her face, the same expression as when she fought the giant spiders in the
canyon. He remembers it clearly, the joy and bloodlust.

    “She talks about regretting it,” he thinks while he watches the back of her head as they sneak up the side of a mountain, “but I know that look, the look of someone who enjoys fighting and destroying things.”

    Up the side of the mountain they see their target the source of the signal, a massive tower; they had seen the tip of the signal dish from a distance away glittering in the sunlight. From this distance the whole thing looks weird, a small complex around it with a fence, in the middle of a valley so no mountains or hills are too close to it; nothing but open space around it so no one can sneak up on it; a tower fortress. Its still a good distance off, they assume from this vantage point they aren’t close enough to be seen hiding on the far side of a large rocky mountain.

     “From the looks of that facility,” says Rhulan, “I’d say the device on top is only an amplifier. We’ll have to go inside to find the source.”

    “Why not just blow the whole damned thing apart?” asks Gold Wolf, “like with that vampire castle?”

    “Vampire castle?” asks Stratos.

    “That was different,” says Rhulan, “vampires by nature are always proud creatures, no matter how alien they might be, blast the nest and they swarm out like killer bees or hornets. No, we don’t know what exactly is the source of the signal, it could be a machine, a person blowing on a magic flute, some smaller device hooked up to a microphone, some alien insect in a cage…we just don’t know. So we go blasting in through the front gate and someone might just sneak out the source through a back gate only to repeat this madness elsewhere.”

    “What are you proposing?” asks Cata

   “I propose,” says Rhulan, “we split into at least three groups, one group draws their forces to the front, a decoy group, while the other two circle around to the other sides.”

    “Wont they just run away like ya said?” asks Viana

   “Not if the group going in the front doesn’t go blasting everything to pieces, just enough to draw their attention; think it’s a frontal assault but with out so much force that they retreat.” says Rhulan

    “In other words,” says Stratos, “fake them out, have the decoy team play weak, draw the fight out or pretend to be lost or something, not knowing what the facility is for why the other two find ways to sneak in and locate the source.”

    “Precisely,” says Rhulan, “but we’ll need to split up here to give us room to circle around with out being spotted together as one large group. Give the seemingly random number of bugs we’ve been facing I can conclude they don’t know how many people are coming or how strong; they’ve just given the bugs specific behavioral blue prints. Simple enough instructions to make them look smarter than they really are or make it look like any travelers really are being watched.”

    “Well,” says Gold Wolf, “the choice is obvious, the guys who can take the most hits are the decoys while the others sneak around. So that’s me, Rhulan, and Cata.”

    “No,” says Rhulan, “my only defenses would be my defense aura and my Spirit Shield. I assume seeing as this is clearly a Magnus facility that they will have weapons specifically designed to fight magic like my Spirit Shield and possibly weaken or penetrate a Defense Aura. My greatest defense has always been my offense, problem is that is also a weakness of mine. I am great at high level spells…not so much low level spells, push come to shove you’re looking at me leveling a wall and sending the whole base into a panic. If we were facing sorcerers or something with spirit based powers I’d be the perfect decoy, I have the ability to absorb direct magical energies and anything based on spirit, divine, or even demonic energy including constructs…Anti-magic bullets not so much, and if they have magic dampeners around this base that will be a problem.”

    “Besides,” says Rhulan with a smile, “This elf princess and I are the only ones who can sense the signal directly, so we’re going to need to be on the two teams going in.”

    Gold Wolf eyes her while thinking, “is she lieing or telling the truth?”

    “Lin Lin and I are going with Miss Rhulan.” says Hollia abruptly.

   “Then I’m going with you two,” says Stratos to Hollia and Rhulan, even surprising himself that he volunteered.

   “Well I can any bullets,” says Gold Wolf smugly, “My powers aren’t like your magic, pure golden chi.”

   “In that case,” says Cata, “I would be perfect for the decoy squad as well…and come to think of it so would Betty.”

   “Betty?” asks Gold Wolf.

   “You shouldn’t under-estimate her,” says Cata, “awhile back we fought a dangerous creature called Mata-Go-Lucky, it wasn’t even able to harm her…granted she wasn’t able to harm it either.”

    Betty looks embarrassed, she makes her body emit the golden aura for a brief moment, “My holy aura,” she says, “its one of the strongest defensive auras there are…”

    She makes a fist and says proudly, “Yes, I can easily stand outside their front gates and distract them. After all there is a reason I am Captain Betty.”

   “In that case,” says Gun-Man, “guess I am on the other squad going in, heh, so me an Vondroncha then, and Viana you coming along?”

    “Of course,” says Viana, “I am your side kick.”

    Gun-Man shakes his head.

    “I am going with Princess Vondroncha,” says Tiana.

   “Why?” asks Gun-Man, “that invisible barrier thing of yours would be perfect for the decoy.”

    “I am a hunter,” says Tiana, “my mission is to be Princess Vondroncha’s body guard, so I am going to guard her body. That is all. Got it!”

    Gun-Man shakes his head, “sure, got it.”

    ******

    Gold Wolf, Cata, and Betty walk down the main road, a road clearly traveled on by wheeled vehicles of great size towards the base.

   “You know,” says Gold Wolf, “considering what we three are, I bet we could make this decoy seem even less like a decoy.”

   “You have a plan then I take it?” asks Cata.

  “Oh yeah,” says Gold Wolf.

    ******

   The front gate to the base is a large metal sliding door with barbwire atop it, on one side a guard tower stands; with in the walls of the base many guards and soldiers go about their business. A guard in a tan uniform and brown pads at the guard tower sees three objects moving in the distance. He quickly picks up a radio communicator, a stick like device with a microphone on the end of it, “this is south gate, I see three people approaching along the main roadway.”

    He picks up binoculars and zooms in with them.

    “Holy shit!” he exclaims as he sees Cata, Gold Wolf glowing and floating, and Betty with her large white wings approaching.

    “Sorry,” he says into the microphone, “there are three monsters approaching, some kind of glowing creature, a cat-girl wearing clothes, and…some kind of bird woman.”

   The voice on the radio says back, “This is main tower, we have visual confirmation of approaching enemies you have authorization to release the Armor Guard, we will be sending monsters to assist.

    ******

   “The gates are opening?” says Betty.

   As the gates open a large thing emerges, its lower body is like a tank with treads. Where a cannon would be however is the mechanical torso of a robot, with a head resembling the helmet of a knight. It raises its hand holding a large gun, a red glow with in charging up an attack.

   “Scatter!” yells Gold Wolf as the blast leaves a crater where they were standing.

   As Cata lands a Giant Tarantula emerges from the ground.

   “Damn!” says Cata as she leaps back from the spider, instinctively swinging her sword and slicing through its face killing it instantly, “well so much for dodging that bug.”

    She turns back to see another robot, this one like a knight of golden armor holding lance, and three more behind looking like thin almost insect like humanoid mechanical forms holding guns before the door closes behind them.

   Betty is busy blocking the stinger of a Giant Scorpion with her golden aura covered palms, not to mention the rest of her body is also incased in the golden aura. The Giant Scorpion attempts to grab her with its claws, she sends it tumbling with a strong sweep of her wing.

   *screee* it screeches as it flips its self back over and comes after her again.

   Betty takes her hat off, “Hat Trick!” a blast of salt water hits the Giant Scorpion in the face causing it writhe about in pain.

   “Wow,” says Betty.

   “over here ugly!” says Gold Wolf flying about dodging gun blasts from the giant tank like Armor Guard and electric bolt beams from the lance of the golden knight version.

   Cata rushes and slices the gun in half being held by one of the smaller robots before picking up the robot and throwing it at the smaller one knocking them over. This is enough to get the golden one’s attention which tries to step on her as she dodges back and
forth, preventing it from trying to hit Gold Wolf.

   “Damn,” thinks Cata as the other robots get up and she sees Betty now fighting off two Giant Scorpions, “not sure how long we can play with these before we’ll have to get serious, don’t even know how tough the two big ones will be to take down.”

    ******

    *crush*

    Tiana smashes another signal amplifier.

    “These things are all over the place out here,” she says, “do we really have to keep taking them out?”

    “Yes,” says Vondroncha her tail above her head, “I can sense it, these devices are boosting the signal, why they are out here when that main tower is so close I don’t know; however I can sense that the main source is closer to the west side of that facility.”

    “More than likely,” says Gun-Man, “these are here to keep the bugs sticking close to the base to guard it. We keep smashing them and they might lose control. Those big dishes really are more for long distance broadcasts…at least that’s what I’ve come to understand. Being part machine doesn’t mean I know everything about them.”

   “Well we aint run into a bug yet,” says Viana, “been nuttin but these boxes and one scrawny robot.” She kicks the insect like humanoid robot at her feet.

   “So then,” says Tiana, “I assume we will then hunt down more of these signal boxes?”

   “Yes,” says Vondroncha, “if we are right about them, then it should assist the others for us to destroy these devices.”

    “We should do that while still making our way to the base,” says Gun-Man, “if we shut down the main device these other ones would just be clean up.”

     Vondroncha and Tiana nod in agreement.

    ******

    The lights and sounds of battle tell the remaining group approaching the corner of the wall from the west that the battle has started. They each fly over the wall in turn, Stratos, then Rhulan. Rhulan glares in the direction of the lights. Her mind reels back to her battle against Adorable Death Bringer and Vol-Pinyo.

   “While it’s nice to have a new Cataclysm to call upon,” she thinks to herself, “it shouldn’t have come to that. My speed has always been rated at only A-class, but those creatures were a far lower level than me. I should have been able to deflect their attacks and send them crying home to the Land of the Dead with the wave of my hand. One thousand years outside my own body has made me rusty.”

    Her thoughts are interrupted after Hollia flies over the wall behind them. She falls to one knee and clutches her head. Her cat ears appearing. Stratos stops and stares before saying, “Her Kuhrai power is awakening? Here? Now?”

   “No,” says Rhulan, “that power already awoke, she has control over it, but…Hollia what’s wrong?”

   Rhulan kneels down placing her arms on Hollia’s shoulder, “I see,” she says, “the signal is very close, directly below us must be the source.”

   “But Holly couldn’t sense it.” says Stratos.

   “Not consciously,” says Rhulan, “but this close and with how Hollia’s picking up on it I can tell you it effects more than bugs, it might just only work on them from a distance, but it seems the combination of Elf and Kuhrai is making Hollia susceptible to the signal, a power both trying to block it and hone in on it at the same time. I’ll know more when we find the source.”

    Rhulan backs away when she sees Lin Lin circling around Hollia’s head and glowing. Stratos takes a step saying, “What’s happening?” as Lin Lin’s body vanishes in light and shrinks onto Hollia’s head. She gets up, her ears returning to normal and feels her head, her eyes open and wide as she is about to panic. As in place of Lin Lin is a silver tiara like headband around with a sapphire jewel on her forehead.

    “Don’t worry,” says Rhulan, “this is a normal part of a true familiar’s evolution. They are meant to be hidden and secret from others. Most with them don’t venture out with them till this phase normally. It comes shortly after they can turn into giant type one and first begin to speak. My Hannya could do the same thing…”

   Rhulan looks sorrowful for a moment before she continues, “remember the statue of me in that village’s temple?”

   Hollia remembers the statue they found, buried behind rock thanks to a Dah-Hoth. In that visage Rhulan had several things she isn’t wearing now including a snake shaped bracelet.

   “Hannya would often take the form of a bracelet, a headband, or even a crown. She liked to experiment with all sorts of shapes.” continues Rhulan, “Regardless of the jewelry her true body is inside the jewel, never forget that; and the jewel is as indestructible as a soul.”

    “Wow,” says Hollia, “I…I think I can hear her purring.”

    “You must have a cozy scalp,” says Rhulan making Hollia blush, Stratos raises his eyebrow at Rhulan.

    “Wait,” says Hollia, “so this mean then in battle Lin Lin could be a total surprise attack.”

   “Yes,” says Rhulan with a nod, “in fact with some practice she should even be able to unleash smaller versions of her attacks while in jewelry form, such as a tiny Devastation Beam from the jewel.”

   Stratos interrupts them, “Okay, this really is fascinating ladies but we are in the middle of sneaking into a hostile military instillation while our friends are distracting an army, so can we get on with it?”

   Rhulan and Hollia look at each other briefly. Stratos walks over to where they are, requiring them to stand aside as he leans to the ground.

   “So it’s directly below us?” he asks

    “Yes,” says Rhulan, “it’s more than one hundred feet down, but it’s directly below this spot.”

    She leans down, her hands glowing green, “I don’t sense anything that could be sensory alarms built into the structure.”

   “In that case,” says Stratos taking a piece of chalk out of a pouch on his waist, “How about we take a direct…and quite path.”

    As he draws a wide circle on the ground Rhulan thinks, “and here I was going to use the Devastation attack to smash my way feet first through all the floors…well, might as well be sneaky if we can.”

   “Okay,” says Stratos after he draws a sigil in the circle, “Daoshin-Geb-Gordash.”

   The sigil glows, and the material inside it turns to dust, flowing like a whirlpool in a reversed current as it piles up by their feet forcing them to take a step back. Peering down they can see a hallway about ten feet down. They jump down and float to the hallway. Stratos repeats his sigil on each floor while Hollia and Rhulan keep watch until they reach a wide open space. A space like something one might expect in some old science fiction program, the walls are covered in panels with seemingly pointless blinking lights between them, giant computer panels and monitors around the room, and in the enter a pedestal with sides just like the walls of the room with a green glass dome containing something inside.

   As they land next to the waist high pedestal they can see that inside the dome is a weird crystal structure glowing pink, blue, and white.

   “A never stopping glib stripper.” says Rhulan looking at it.

   “A what?” asks Stratos.

   “Nothing,” says Rhulan, “it just reminded me of something long ago, not sure I even said the name right, but I think it was some sort of candy having to do with a man with red hair and a purple hat or something.”

   Rhulan shrugs, “any who, this thing is the source of the signal, and it would seem our foes found Precursor technology.”

   She walks over to the computer and laughs slightly, “but they don’t have the first clue about computer designs, these don’t even have password protections on them, everything in their database here is accessible. Heh, Kaiju listings…useless, some robot blue prints...low grade robots though, seems anything big or impressive is shipped here not built here. This is all mostly about this device. Well it seems I was right, its actually a mind control signal, designed to control prisoners with implants. Seems our busy little beavers have been trying to modify it to influence anything, gotten as high as bugs, and enough to give more sensitive higher life forms a headache.”

   Rhulan stands back saying, “Okay, well we can’t let this stuff remain.”

   She aims her hand at it and says, “Thunder Cannon!” an electric beam blasts from her hand, lightning bolts shooting our along the sides. However the blast meets a blue force field around the computers.

   “Damn,” says Rhulan as the alarms sounds, and the true reason this room is so huge is revealed. A massive circular door on the far end of the floor opens up, a giant black armor robot head; shaped almost like an upside down cup of pudding, with glowing red eyes and a grate with yellow lights behind where a mouth should be, emerges. The force field behind them extends and pushes them towards the robot head.

    “Saints Barrier!” yells out Hollia in time to erect a defense against a beam blast from the eyes of the robot that deflect and blast apart a nearby wall.

    “Yeah right I’m playing their game.” says Rhulan as she puts her glowing green hand on the force field, it blinks and vanishes. The alarm stops as well.

    “What the hell is that?!” exclaims a familiar voice as Gun-Man with Viana, Vondroncha, and Tiana enter through a door almost right next to the robot head.

    The head rotates towards them

    “Get top side!” commands Stratos, “I have a bad feeling about this robot.”

    “You mean aside from the fact it just tried to attack us?” says Hollia in a snippy voice that even surprises her.

    *smash*

   Rhulan when no one was looking turned back and smashed her hand through the signal crystal’s control dome, and smashed the control crystal.

   “Intruders.” says the robot head in a mechanical voice, “computer systems compromised. ID detection systems compromised. Unknown electromagnetic feed back detected. All system compromised. Project Mind Bender…Destroyed. Initiate Last Resort Protocol.”

    ******

    Outside the patience of the decoy team’s members is growing thin. Betty blasts both Giant Scorpions in their mouths with her red and blue guns, killing them instantly. She looks over to see Cata has either lost her patience completely, or lost her self in some brutal form of amusement as she laughs while smashing one of the thin robots with another of the thin robots which she is swinging by its ankles like a club. The Giant golden knight robot turns its attentions to her just as she tosses what remains of her makeshift weapon into the face of the behemoth.

   “Ha!” she screams, “bring it on you oversized tin-can!”

   Gold Wolf has ceases trying to dodge the blasts from one of the tank robots and deflects its blast with a swing of his fist into the head of the other tank robot shutting it down by removing its head.

    “Weaklings!” he screams, “how can I be expected to drag out a fight against under-built, low grade garbage like these when I’ve fought four hundred foot tall robots modeled after samurai and giant lizards!”

   *whiiiiiir*

   The remaining robots stop as a loudspeaker announces during the alarm, “Attention all hands, we have intruders inside the main compound, computer systems have been compromised, all men are to evacuate immediately, repeat all men are to evacuate immediately, its…oh shi….*fiiii*”

   The loud speaker is cut off as a massive *explosion* rocks the base, the main tower toppling over as a massive robot emerges from underground. Rubble blocks the main gate as people inside run around in circles.

   “Golden Blast!” shouts Gold Wolf taking out a chunk of the wall with his beam.

   “Rai-Ko-Ken!” shouts Cata taking out a length of wall along the east side.

   As people flee from the base out these make shift entrances, many more are buried and dead in the rubble as the gargantuan humanoid black robot emerges fully to the surface. Betty, Cata, and Gold Wolf fly over the base to see Gun-Man, Viana, Vondroncha, and Tiana, near its feet blasting at its feet, not seeming to do anything. While Hollia and a Giant Lin Lin fly up into the air blasting it with Devastation Beams and “Sacred Fire!” spells. Stratos flies about dodging its slowly moving fists, blasting bits and pieces off its fingers with Thunder Blasts, Fire Blasts, and Darkness Bolts.

    The stocky robot turns towards the three flying it, its eyes glowing. Rhulan practically teleports in front of them erecting her, “Spirit Shield!” in time to deflect its eye beams.

    “Damn it all!” shouts Rhulan, “these lunatics tried to build a Juggernaut!”

   “A what?” asks Gold Wolf.

   “The full scale version of the Petite Juggernauts,” she says, “luckily for us this one isn’t complete, it lacks the power core and the proper armor, but its nearly the same frame.”

    After that an expression betrays her that a thought has occurred to her she flies directly towards its head in an apparent suicide run.

    “Rhulan!” shouts Hollia seeing her glowing mentor charge fist first head on at the Juggernaut’s head.

    She rams right into its grate like mouth and with a massive yell of, “Magnetic Vortex!” can be heard just before the head is shredded from the inside out as though an invisible tornado had been created.

   As the giant lumbers about, Betty and swoops down and grabs Gun-Man as Tiana and Vondroncha fly up with Viana in a force field created by Tiana. All of them except for Rhulan retreat towards a mesa Gold Wolf points out. Hollia looks back just in time to see Rhulan do something amazing. A massive pillar, more like a blade five times her body length, of darkness with a green aura and sparks of red, a deep purple, and gold bolts along its length, rises from her hands. She brings this blade down onto the giant robot as she shouts, “Blade of Chaos!”
    Hollia sees that although the blade wasn’t long enough it seems to grow to slice through the body of the Juggernaut like robot, cutting it as easily as a red hot sword through paper, with much the same effect as the machine’s body bubbles an un-natural black and deep red, dissolving into the ether. Rhulan flies up from the crotch height of the machine where her blade of chaos finishes its work and vanishes.

    Rhulan joins Hollia a good distance from the base in mid-air and the two of them join the others on the mesa Hollia leads Rhulan too. When they land Lin Lin shrinks and turns back into a silver headband on Hollia’s head.

    Betty, Cata, and Gold Wolf look at this wandering, when the hell that came about.

    “I wander how many people escaped.” says Betty as she retracts her wings.

    “Anyone with any brains should have ran when that first alarm kicked on, or when they realized we were just toying with their junk heaps.” says Gold Wolf.

   Rhulan stares intensely at the base, its in ruins, the tower toppled, the giant incomplete Juggernaut sliced in half, the chaotic bubbling has stopped, dissolving only half of each side of it. There is movement however as a few more Golden Knights emerge from an bunker that miraculously was untouched in the battle.

    “There’s movement,” says Stratos looking down, “looks like the robots that survived are rebuilding, or cleaning up. Heh, smart move, make the…machines…”

    His attention is drawn to Rhulan who flies in the air, an aura of darkness with red bolts around her, two large spheres of energy in her hands, spheres of blood red and black. Rhulan chants. As she chants dark winds emerge and circle around her, her cape and hair rising skyward.

    “I call the seal to loosen,
     I call forth that power which is locked with-in
     By that which sleeps at the center of all chaos at the center of the Netherworld
     By the power of the mother of chaos
    I call forth the forbidden energies into the this world
   To destroy all that stands before me, to bury it all in darkness and chaos
    Lay waist the land and corrupt the sky, in the embrace of the mother of darkness!
   Chaos Destroyer!”

   She brings her hands together, a massive spiral beam of black energy, blood red energy, and a wind of deepest green, deepest purple, and sparks of gold with a dark wind circling the whole thing flies forth into the base hitting the Juggernaut like robot dead on. A great sphere of blackness appears, the other colors moving over its surface like a rainbow on oil, only much darker before the whole thing explodes into a massive cyclone that flies into the sky. The sky above turns black and red; something that was seen before when Rhulan lost control, only this time it only lasts for an instant. Although they each could swear they heard from the sky a sound like a cross between the roar of some un-natural beast of darkness and the roll of thunder, covering up the laughter of a woman. They aren’t certain however if the laughter came from the sky or from Rhulan.

    A deep red fiery aura surrounds Rhulan. Hollia expects her to land and tell them to stay back like she did with the Mystic Destroyer she used on Ravana; however this time instead Rhulan puts out her hands like she is holding something. The deep red fiery aura flies at the speed of the wind like a flame being snuffed out from around her body and collects into a sphere in her hands. Rhulan holds her hands out as though to blast the sphere out, instead a black portal appears, much like the one her sword emerges from, and she pushes the deep red sphere of energy into it. This raises many questions in their minds, however the site of where the base once stood raises more; as the base sized crater that had resulted from the destructive spell now begins to glow green.

    Rhulan lands next to Hollia and says, “you’re going to love this part.”

    Rhulan smiles, Hollia looks at her confused, Lin Lin transforms from the head band to her normal self and watches with her head cocked the increasing pulsating intensity of the green light that began at the center of the blast and now encompasses the same size the black dome had.

    “What the hell?” mouths Stratos, Gun-Man, and Gold Wolf at once while the others look on towards the weird sight before them.

    When the light vanishes what they see, results in a collective, “impossible,” from everyone except for the one who cast the spell, Lin Lin, and Hollia; who grabs a hold of Rhulan’s arm in wonderment, a tear escaping her eye.

     Before them now stands an oasis filled with trees and grass with a massive spiral crystal obelisk at the center with a statue on each of the four sides of Rhulan herself.

   “Oh what the hell?” says Gold Wolf noticing the statues.

   “It’s beautiful,” says Hollia.

   “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” says Rhulan, “matter and energy are not destroyed by normal spells, this spell however does. Reality reacts to this destruction by creating a replacement for all that was destroyed. Normally you’d just see some piles of basic elements or a massive explosion of air or something, if your lucky a field of flowers or a forest created from nothing.”

   She dips her head a little before continuing, “I’ve had some practice and grafted into the spell something more specific.” She smiles smugly at her own achievement.

   “how,” starts Stratos, “I…mean…I’ve never even heard of such a spell.”

   “Of course,” says Rhulan, “that’s because I never shared it with the world, its too dangerous; it would kill pretty much anyone who isn’t immortal who tried to use it, and only at a hundredth of that power level.”

   …an awkward pause as no one knows what to say and Hollia continues to hold Rhulan’s arm while looking below.

  “Any who,” says Rhulan breaking the silence, “how about we go down there and refresh our supplies, and get some rest.

  A moment later they are refilling their water and collecting fruit in the oasis, they can’t make camp, after all there was a base here and who knows when those soldiers who escaped might come back. While Vondroncha, Tiana, and Viana play in the water, laughing like little girls and Hollia looks at the crystal statues of Rhulan, each standing forty feet high; Gold Wolf scowls and says to Stratos and Gun-Man, “these trees, this water, this was all metal and men before. Any one who didn’t escape, any survivors in the
rubble, men underground, she killed them all and turned them into statues, trees, and…”

   He picks a large orange and yellow citrus fruit, “fruit,” he finishes.

   They thought Gold Wolf was making a point but don’t say anything as he takes a bite of the fruit and walks on.

   “Well,” says Gun-Man, “I did hear he was some kind of Japanese super-hero bad-ass.”

   Stratos looks around at the relaxing scene, almost in total disbelief a military base stood here less than an hour earlier and they were fighting a giant robot in it. He looks over at Rhulan and Hollia talking to each other, Rhulan using a fruit as an example to explain something to Hollia which Lin Lin starts to eat making them both laugh.

    “Any doubts,” he thinks to himself, “that she really is the legendary Rhulan I had are definitely gone now. Who else but some goddess of magic could do something like this?”

    ******

    *Flash*

    Back at the mesa they were on before Corinth appears and says to herself, “That fight should have been much shorter, I don’t know see why either of those two held back, either one of them could have leveled that whole base in one attack; Rhulan. …and…Tiana is it now?”