Ravens of Eternity

220 The Patriarch Falls, Pt Mia’s frigate had reached FXP-04 without issues and sped towards home as fast as her frigate was able. Its main thrusters had been overcharged and on full blast, which allowed it to careen forward at well over 215 meters per second.

Lagging behind her was Darius’ frigate, which struggled to maintain any speed beyond 210 m/s in atmosphere.

And swarming around them were their mecha squadrons, but they were hard pressed to keep up. Their power plants and thrusters simply weren’t as robust as the ones on the frigates. Many began to sputter even while they flew.

Darius flashed on Mia’s comms display, his face marred with concern.

“Slow down Mia,” he pleaded. “We’re not able to keep up with you. Our ship just isn’t as good as yours... if we keep going like this, we’re gonna-”

“Alert, Crusader,” interrupted an officer, “Wing Leader Delta is reporting power plant failure, and they’re falling back for auto-repairs.”

Outside, six of the mecha suddenly dropped away, the thrusters on their backs blinked out as they fought to maintain their altitude. All of them were forced to slow down and descend down towards the surface in order to stay in control.

Another six began to also lag behind, more and more as the seconds ticked by.

“Alert, Crusader,” said another, “Wing Leader Tau is reporting coolant failure, and is forced to lower speed to compensate.”

.....

“Goddammit Mia!” followed up Darius. “You need to cull speed or none of us are gonna get home!”

Mia was immediately incensed. She felt attacked by all their protests, especially when it came from Darius. Didn’t he know how much was riding on her?

Failure was not an option. Not for anyone. But especially not for her.

“Get off comms, brother!” said Mia. “This is my command, and my command is law! We must get to Father as fast as we possibly can, otherwise we might lose him! You get it now? Losing one or two or three Prophets hardly matters in comparison. Even if we die by the hundreds!”

“I... yes, Crusader,” replied Darius.

He grimaced as more alerts filled the screens around him. And since he had no choice, he simply ended comms and fell back into his chair.

“You heard the Crusader,” he said weakly. “Maximum overcharge to thrusters. Maintain active repairs as much as possible. Keep us right behind her, even if it kills us.”

~

Callie dodged incoming fire and charged right up to Max and T-Rex with incredible speed and dexterity. She clocked Max on the side of his head with a backhanded-fist while she kicked into T-Rex’s ribs at the same time.

Max was thrown aside a few meters away and landed in a heap. His mind reeled from the strike, and it took him far too long to get his senses back. T-Rex however wasn’t a stranger to getting knocked around, and simply rolled with the kick.

But just as he recovered his footing, she swung her hammer at him with relentless speed.

He reached out and blocked with his rifle, which took the hit. But she wasn’t done, and kept on swinging her hammer over and over. And he blocked her strikes, over and over.

Each time, it broke off a piece of the rifle itself, and bent it ever so slightly. And he felt her strength in each of the strikes. The vibrations traveled through the gun and down his arms, and it shook him deep.

But again, this wasn’t his first rodeo and he took it all like a champ.

She swung again, laterally this time, and with overwhelming force. It was strong enough to wrench the rifle out of his hands, which flew meters away. The rifle clattered on the marble floor, bent and broken and useless.

T-Rex sighed at the sight.

“I just bought that,” he complained.

Then he drew a thick, heavy baton from his thigh sheath, and extended it triply with the snap of a wrist.

He recalled what Freya had said, about how the Prophets had an incredibly short fuse, and that they could be easily manipulated because of it. Problem was, he didn’t know how to light said fuse.

And he didn’t want to be near when the whole thing exploded.

“Seriously,” he said, “you Prophets have no respect for anyone or anything. I guess I’m gonna have to beat the lesson into you...”

He immediately got a message from Freya in his DI, and he decided to follow her sage advice.

“... seeing as how your Father failed to teach you properly.”

Callie was immediately angered by his words, and her eyes turned dark and murderous.

“Never insult Father!” she screamed.

Then she charged at him with full power, her hammer raised high in the air. Within the blink of an eye, Callie had closed the distance and swung downward on T-Rex.

He just barely hopped to the side, and let the heavy hammer head smash right into the marble with a heavy CLACK. The floor splintered and cracked on impact, and shards of it flung out in every direction.

As she pulled the hammer back into a ready grip, T-Rex swung his baton right at her face. He connected with a swift THWACK that staggered her sideways a few steps.

But she shook off the impact, even as a drop of blood spilled out of the corner of her mouth.

She turned towards T-Rex with a wide sneering grin on her face.

“That all you got?” she taunted.

~

Freya lunged forward and ducked down as Father’s heavy obsidian desk flew overhead. It crashed onto the floor and cracked apart in multiple places. She bounced up and slashed laterally at Father, and aimed her blade right at his neck.

To her utter surprise, he simply raised his forearm and blocked her attack. And when she felt her blade scrape up against what felt like stone, she pulled away and jumped back.

At the same time, Father swung downwards with his right hand as a counterattack. It was so quick and powerful that she felt the air get torn apart by his swing.

And because he poured so much power into it, he was unable to stop it himself. His fist crashed right into the marble floor with a heavy CLACK, and caused the floor to shatter and fragment on impact.

It was as though his hand was made of titanium ore.

Freya narrowed her eyes as the realization hit her. She had only begun to explore her abilities, while her opponent had much more time to develop his. His knowledge of Ascendant Form far surpassed her own.

She certainly had the ability to toughen her skin and muscle and bone, but not to the density he employed. And she certainly couldn’t use it as long as he could.

Freya evaded each and every one of his attacks as best she could, thanks to Tiamat’s Transcendence. She was already at her limits simply evading him, and the last thing she wanted to do was exhaust herself by activating Ascendant Form.

Especially since she wasn’t sure how to beat him. Yet.

All she could do was watch his movements and look for some kind of weakness – something she could exploit. Anger, maybe. But something told her that wasn’t going to be enough. Not against him.

As she watched, she realized just how practiced and highly tuned his attacks were. She could hardly find an opening in his stance. And that’s when it hit her – he was using a combat form taught at the academy!

Father used to be a Federal Naval cadet!

“Impressed with what you see?” asked Father. “It’s alright to admit it, of course. Even if you don’t want to. It’s only natural.”

Freya immediately felt sick from his words, and an urge to beat him to death filled her. But she knew she couldn’t act on it. He was clearly baiting her into making a mistake, and that was something she couldn’t afford to make.

“I’ll admit I’m impressed,” she said. “It’s too bad you can’t share such a powerful gift with your beloved children.”

Father grinned, even as he swung fist after fist at Freya.

“They don’t deserve such gifts,” he said calmly. “Not one of them has earned the privilege of understanding it, much less knowing about it in the first place.”

“You’re a tyrant, not a father,” chided Freya. “Especially since you think gifts are earned, rather than given.”

“What’s wrong with earning favor?”

Freya sighed as she bounded backwards at speed. She poured in as much energy as she could to get away from the man. But he chased after her with unrelenting determination.

“Nothing,” she retorted. “Unless you mistakenly conflate nurturing a child with managing a subordinate. And you’re clearly mistaken.”

“Hmph. What would you know about raising a family?” he said. “You don’t know the difficulty of it all.”

Freya’s eyes narrowed at his words. Her desire to wreck him with her fists now overwhelmed her, and she trembled as she fought against those urges.

She kicked T-Rex’s broken rifle at him as she backed up, but he swatted it away with ease.

“Stop running,” he continued. “Stop and join the family. I’ll teach you how to raise my children. I’ll teach you how to become a true Alpha Human, like me.”

“I already told you,” she replied immediately, “you don’t have anything I want.”

“How laughable! I have at my fingertips the secrets to all human potential! To all human growth! To be the absolute peak of humanity! People all over the galaxy would kill to know what I do!”

Father focused inward for a moment, summed up a great amount of energy, then leapt forward with blinding speed.

Alarm shot through Freya, and was compelled to lunge towards her attacker. This time, she allowed Tiamat’s Transcendence to guide her, and so allowed it to take over briefly. With that, she launched herself forward and dived under Father, just as he leapt through the air right above her.

She dropped forward, rolled on a shoulder, then spun around to face him.

He landed with a WHUMP, and cracked the marble around him. He spun around even as the dust settled, and whipped the air into a slight vortex. Then he launched himself towards Freya again.

Alarm shot through Freya, but this time she was unable to react in time. His speed far outshone her own, and he was in her face before she could move.

Surprise was etched on her face, while absolute glee was etched on his.

His fist connected with her cheek with a FWOOM, and flung her a dozen meters away. She slammed into the heavy titanium wall and fell unceremoniously on the ground.

Freya pushed herself off the ground with a groan and shook the dizziness from her mind. She hadn’t been hit like that in a very long time, and realized that she really couldn’t play around. But first she poured a little extra energy into her bones, and wove throughout them.

And with the help of Azrael’s VitaLife, steeled them.

While she recovered, Father sauntered his way over to her and rubbed the knuckles on his fist.

“Here I am, offering my gifts to you freely,” he continued. “And yet you refuse them so blindly. As if your values are more important than my own. Don’t you see what I’m trying to achieve? Don’t you understand that humanity won’t have a future if we don’t evolve ourselves?”

Of all the blustering and boasting that she heard the Prophets say, what Father just said was perhaps the most offensive to her.

She felt bile rise up her throat, but she fought the urge to vomit with everything she had. Instead she rose back up to her feet, unsteady as she was.

.....

“All it costs is becoming one of your slaves?” she muttered. “Not worth it. I’d rather see humanity go extinct than see it pressed down under your thumb. And I’d rather die than sit at your side, ever.”

She spat out blood onto the floor to punctuate her words. But Father kept his domineering smile on his face. He was clearly amused by it all.

“Your defiance is refreshing,” he said. “I look forward to breaking it. No matter, one day you’ll realize the childishness of your resistance, and the wisdom of my words. One day, you’ll praise me harder than anyone else ever has. I’ll make sure of it.”

His grin widened as he sped up and charged Freya with powerful strides. Absolute conviction shone in his eyes as he neared.