Kastori Revelations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 1) (32 page)

“Wings.”

It made sense. Celeste had taken the monster’s right side, and he the left side. Together, they could combine their powers to take out the wings. The targeting would be difficult, if not impossible, but they also had magic, which no VR training could provide.

“Pagus!”

“Yes sir!” Pagus said as
Omega One
flew overhead.

“Can you guide my bullets?”

“Afraid not! I wish I had that skill.”

“Give my bullets ice properties!” Cyrus yelled as the monster flew past them at a frightening rate. “I need to make those wings brittle so we can shoot them off!”

“I can do that!” Pagus said as he put his mask back on.

“Good,” Cyrus said, steadying his hand and putting the aerial battle in view of his Nakar 17 scope. “Because our ship is banking right back toward us, and you’d better be ready when these bullets fire.”

58

Crystil shot the ship over the plains and prepared to run to the ocean. If Calypsius was going to destroy
Omega One
, she wanted Cyrus and Celeste to at least have time to escape before Calypsius returned.

But Erda suddenly took her mask off and looked over at Crystil, her voice as clear as possible.

“Turn the ship around and head toward my people!” Erda yelled.

“And lead to more deaths?” Crystil yelled back. “This thing, it’s attracted to you, Erda. If we die out in the ocean, others live. We die where they are, we all die.”

“We prolong their deaths if we do not try everything we can here,” Erda said.

A loud cry disrupted their conversation, and Crystil saw Calypsius would hit them in less than a second. Instinctively, she kicked the ship up, going so high up
Omega One
inverted, and rolled it. They were now coming back toward the Kastori and, more importantly, had escaped Calypsius.

“Probably just broke this ship in half doing that. Anyways, looks like you got your wish. But why are we going this way?”

“One of the Kastori suggests we lead them into position for your friends to shoot out the wings,” Erda said. “My people can enhance your bullets, and if we can combine their forces with your weapons, then we can ground Calypsius and win with an aerial assault it will no longer be able to counter.”

This seems desperate. But not like we have non-desperate plans.

Crystil jammed the accelerator as hard as she could, though she still could not outrun Calypsius. She thought about Erda’s plan, and it seemed fine as something to try, but the missiles wouldn’t aim. They just locked on to the object emanating the most heat, and she saw no way that they would hit the wings instead of the monster’s face or body.

But her guns were a different story. Having to switch focus between piloting the ship and targeting the turrets stretched her to her limits, as she had never multitasked to such a degree, even in VR training. Monda had co-pilots for a ship of
Omega One’s
size for a reason. But if anyone who knew Monda’s technology could do it, it was Crystil.

She checked the visual readings and noticed the monster hot on their trail. Much to her relief, they had just enough space to reach the Kastori and Cyrus and Celeste before the monster closed in. She stopped firing her weapons and focused on lining up the turrets, with one targeting Calypsius’ right wing and one the left. The task proved incredibly difficult, even for a soldier as seasoned and talented as Crystil. It was like trying to shoot the feathers off of a flying aviant from half a mile away with a pistol.

“Lower!” Erda ordered, and Crystil went as low as she could, so low that if she jumped out of the ship, she might have survived the height. Still trying to aim for the wings, she lined them up at the center of the creature’s flapping and figured she’d just have to time it as best as she could. She looked up ahead and saw the edge of the forest closing in, giving her about three seconds before she had to pull up to avoid death.

At one and a half second, she fired both turrets, unloaded a couple of missiles for good measure, and pulled up as hard as she could as the sound of explosions came behind her. Trees scraped the belly of the ship, but nothing sounded quite so pleasant, for it meant the monster had not reached them.

As she pulled up to safety, Crystil heard an even louder sound—the monster crashing into the forest, annihilating many trees and, much to Crystil’s horror, more Kastori.
Just not Cyrus and Celeste. Please.

Crystil slowed the ship and turned around. The monster lay on its stomach, with the skid marks evident from the moment it had lost its wings. The right wing was completely destroyed. The left was broken in half, clearly unable to support the monster in flight. Crystil felt relief wash over her. They could easily finish the job with some missile strikes.

But Erda’s cry shook her.

“Many of my Kastori died,” she said solemnly.

“Cyrus and Celeste?” Crystil said, almost wishing she hadn’t asked the question.

Erda remained silent for several seconds. Crystil assumed the worst.

“Celeste lives. Cyrus… I cannot get a sense for him,” Erda said. “I do not know.”

Still hope, still a possibility. But assume he’s gone.

“In any case, Crystil, the beast still lives. It is greatly wounded and cannot fly, but we need to deliver the final blow.”

Crystil glanced down. The surrounding trees would make it difficult to hit it, and the time it would take to come around and inflict more damage might allow Calypsius time to rise.

Crystil thought of a move so insane, she rejected it at first before deciding she had nothing to lose. She quickly shot
Omega One
up to the sky, climbing a few thousand feet, until she felt sure of the positioning. She tilted the ship forward, lining it up with the monster.

“You’re about to feel very lightweight and possibly sick,” Crystil said, her stomach revolting. “Get ready.”

She killed the engine and let gravity take over as she unloaded missiles and bullets into the back of the creature. The explosions lit up the dark sky, and at the last second, Crystil turned the engines back on, kicking the ship up and through a fireball. She had not timed the climb perfectly, as the ship skipped on the ground, but the damage done did not prevent
Omega One
from flying back up into the sky. Crystil slowed the ship down and breathed a sigh of relief, unbuckling her belt as she slowly mumbled, “Yes.”

“I think we might have actually pulled this one off.”

59

Cyrus had unloaded nearly all of his bullets into the beast’s wing when
Omega One
zoomed overhead at the last second, producing a substantial drag that nearly knocked Cyrus out of the tree. He looked back just in time to see the great beast tumbling forward, one of its wings completely clipped and the other broken in half, with its head crashing into the trees. Cyrus didn’t even have time to react before the monster slammed through the bottom half of the tree, knocking him from the perch.

He woke to the sound of the creature breathing slowly and tried to piece the events together. The time from the explosion to losing consciousness was virtually instantaneous. How was he still alive? What were the chances his rifle would still be in his lap? Looking up at Mount Ardor didn’t give any answers, so he sat up and turned back to the battlefield. It was scattered with bodies. Up above,
Omega One
floated in the air, observing from afar. And directly in front of him, a red-hooded Kastori worked on a different person without robes.

Cyrus realized only one other person on this battlefield wouldn’t be wearing robes.

“Celeste!” he yelled, quickly making his way over branches, leaves and other debris toward his sister.

To his relief, she rose with just a few cuts on her face and arms before he got to her.

“You all right?” Cyrus asked.

“Yeah, thanks,” she said, dusting herself off. “The Kastori, though—”

“Leave that to me,” the woman in the red robes said, a voice they immediately recognized as Amira. “Focus on Calypsius.”

“Amira, tha—”

“Go,” the girl said, running toward more Kastori.

Cyrus bit his lip to avoid saying anything to Amira.

“What good is shooting this monster without Pagus?” Cyrus asked Celeste, exasperated.

“And what good is magic without your awesome gun!” Pagus shouted, the most recently risen Kastori. “You really think I would die without getting to taste Calypsius? Come on now, I know you’ve been listening. Or do I need to get that cute girl next to you instead so she’ll listen to what I have to say?”

“Hi, Pagus, this is my sister,” he said, with emphasis on the last word. “Celeste. And no, I would expect nothing less.”

“Pagus,” Celeste said, without any dismissal, much to Cyrus’ concern. “We need your help. Reya didn’t make it. Can you give both our Nakar 17s magic?”

“Whew, it’ll be tough, but for a pretty lady and a chance to win this, why not?”

Cyrus rolled his eyes and quickly put his gun on his shoulder. But the cascade of bullets and missiles stopped him.
Omega One
was in free fall and with no engines firing.

“Is she insane?!” Cyrus asked. “She’ll die!”

“I don’t think that’s the plan,” Celeste said, but she didn’t sound sure.

Cyrus retreated, afraid of the ensuing shrapnel of an explosion.
Omega One
rapidly descended, continuing to rain destruction on the gasping Calypsius. Cyrus began to believe Crystil had chosen to sacrifice herself.

But at what felt like beyond the last possible moment, the engines roared, and the ship pulled up. It skipped on the ground, creating a loud crunch that left Cyrus hard of hearing for a few seconds, but the ship settled in ahead of them, still in one piece. Cyrus laughed at his stupidity for believing that Crystil would ever choose to sacrifice herself, even if to take down a monster of that size.

“Yeah, I don’t think that was the plan,” Cyrus said, still laughing with relief.

He waved to the ship and turned to the monster and taunted it. A firm hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“It’s not dead yet,” Celeste said, urgency in her voice. “Let’s finish the job.”

The three survivors only took one step, though, before the beast unleashed a terrifying cry unlike anything it had produced before.

It was not the cry of a prideful predator or a celebratory beast. It was the cry of an angry monster, furious that it had nearly died. It turned and stared right past the Orthrans and remaining Kastori, eying
Omega One
with such a rage that Cyrus felt the ship had no chance.

The creature quickly stood on its six limbs like an arachnia and broke off in a sprint, producing such quakes it knocked everyone off their feet. Cyrus cocked his gun and fired it at the back of the creature, but it did no discernible damage.

If they had not won the battle on Crystil’s near-kamikaze maneuver, it was not a battle they could win.

60

The roar sent Crystil back into her horrible flashbacks, but with concentration, she regained her composure as Calypsius finished its cry. She quickly yanked the ship in the opposite direction and jammed the accelerator, still fighting panic even as she had managed to quash the traumatic flashbacks.

Her body slammed against the back of the seat, unbuckled. She knew she could not afford to make any sharp turns, or she’d be thrown out of her chair to her death. But she climbed, pushing her body down and into the seat. It felt like she might actually escape. If the creature could not fly, they could get just high enough to avoid its physical attacks, and—

A loud crunch filled their ears, and much to Crystil’s horror, they weren’t moving at all. The engines still roared, but they were stuck, on a metaphorical treadmill.

“What’s happening?!?” Crystil said.

She checked her visual display and saw the creature frozen in place, its barbaric and sharp tail pointed toward the ship like a spear. Crystil knew immediately was happening.

“It’s using its magic to bring the ship back to it,” Erda said, a strain in her voice as if she could barely talk and use magic at the same time. “I’m counteracting it.”

But Erda only delayed the inevitable impaling. The ship began to move backward at a slowly accelerating rate as Calypsius’ powers grew with every second. Crystil looked at the time—they had about two minutes before the beast recovered from its initial wounds. They had to do something fast.

She grabbed the targeting modules and pointed the missile launchers at Calypsius. When she hit fire, nothing happened. The weapons were jammed, and Crystil felt hopeless. They had to depend on the Kastori below, and
Omega One
probably didn’t have the time to allow the Kastori to cast their most powerful spells.

There was nothing they could do.

A strange calm came over Crystil as time seemed to slow. With an acceptance of death, she turned off the radar—she would not need it anymore. She flipped to her favorite photo of her and Dyson. It was taken just after their wedding, the two still in their outfits, embracing each other with the kind of joyful faces that only the other could bring. Crystil sadly smiled as tears fell, knowing this was the last time she’d get to see that photo.