The city of Branwell had been evacuated in anticipation of the Goddess’ arrival. The Witch combatants in our group had determined this small historical European city to be the landing point. I felt it too, the sky bore the weight most heavily here, as if it were plastic wrap bending under the weight of a bowling ball. Was this feeling the Goddess’ intent? Her focus? We knew so little about what lay inside the red Lacuna.
A crack ran along its surface, neon red lights emanating from within. How long was it? A kilometer? A thousand? Scale and distance were so warped it was impossible to tell. Every hour or so the crack would expand upwards, spreading across the surface timed to an air-shuddering sound that all the Earth could hear.
Crack.
We stood in positions across the city, some of us on rooftops where we could quickly move to where we were needed. Some hid, bunkered down in secure positions where they could influence the coming conflict while staying out of sight and hopefully out of danger. For those who could be knocked off a building and die, they remained at street level, mostly in armoured vehicles procured by the remnants of the now defunct H.E.S.P.
Krrrrk.
The sun had risen and the tops of the buildings shone silver and red, like swords raised in war. There was still no sign of the Marquess, the Herald of the Goddess who had been seen a few times over the months-long war that humanity had fought. He always appeared at the worst times, making bad situations hopeless, like he fed off of despair. I had no doubt he would be here. I had to be ready.
Krrkrkrrk.
Daria stretched and yawned beside me. “You know what’s funny? Last night was the best sleep I’ve had since this all started. Feels like this is the end, one way or the other.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Only you could’ve slept soundly at the end of the world.”
She grinned and rolled backwards into a handstand, then brought her feet down. “You should get your beauty sleep too, Sage. You’re sleeping for two now.”
“That wasn’t funny in the slightest. And it’s a lot more than two.”
“Triplets? Quadruplets?” Daria asked, placing a hand on her chest in feigned shock.
“I’ve got a little bit of every person I ever ate a piece of. But somehow I still feel like I’m full of holes.”
I stared down at my hands. One of my fingers twitched, like a ghost from the stolen memories was listening.
Daria paused before saying, “You’ll get used to it. Take your time.”
I clenched my hand into a fist and looked up. “Who are you? Old Daria never would have missed such an easy layup about ‘holes’.”
Daria waved her hand dismissively. “Too easy. I aim for bigger game.” Her eyes shone with the red glow of the Lacuna. “The biggest.”
KRKRKRKKRK.
A pit sat in my stomach. “I suppose this is a bad time to tell you that I tried it.”
“Hm? Tried what?”
“I tried to bring someone back.”
Daria glanced at me in concern. “You didn’t…”
“Not Nell,” I assured. “When I landed back on Earth, there was this small town where a young man had just died. Taken too early by those monstrous spawn. It… it was a moment of weakness. I absorbed his body and tried to push the memories into a new body that I created. It felt like I could do it. I had all this power… But it wasn’t the same person. The new person had his memories, but it was like those memories didn’t settle the same. Different interpretations of past events, new personality quirks, gaps in his mind where I didn’t have anything to fill it. He acted strange. More like a spawn than a human.”
“That’s fucked, Sage.”
I felt my face burn with shame. “I know. I just miss her so much.”
“I get it.” Daria reached over and hugged me tight. “It’s the kind of hurt that will make you do anything to try and get some relief.”
CRACK.
Daria released me quickly as something emerged from the jagged fissure in the Lacuna.
My heart thudded in my ears as we watched golden tendrils crept out of the crack, spreading out over the outer surface of the red egg.
Daria inhaled deeply and projected her voice in a roar that boomed across the rooftops.
“POSITIONS!”
Neve’s power kicked into high gear, sharpening my senses until I could feel the subtle shifts in the air. I spotted something black emerge from the canopy that covered a stadium a few blocks away from us. A black sludge that pooled into a puddle.
From the sludge arose the Herald and several spawn. The spawn were freakishly tall with large hollows in their chests filled with strings like a harp. Many hands plucked at the strings, sending unearthly notes across the city, sounding simultaneously like the sonorous drone of chanting monks and the cries of grief-stricken women.
Then his voice pounded through our minds.
“We welcome the Mother of Hatred.”
The tendrils dug in, anchoring themselves into the surface of the Lacuna, forming more cracks in starburst patterns. The chasm was wrenched open with a cracking sound that sent a shudder down my spine. Light flooded out of the widening gap, making the whole thing look like a glowing reptilian eye.
Powerful winds whipped through the streets.
The music swelled, an orchestra of strings made of blood and meat.
Then, like the sun had melted and was dripping down to Earth, the shining fluid oozed out from the crack, thinning out into a single thread that lowered slowly towards us. Like a spider’s thread, it came closer and closer, the space closing more rapidly than what was physically logical.
I saw the divine figure at the tip of the thread. Her skin was like glass. Her organs sat encased within, crystalline and glowing. Her heart emanated waves of force, pulsating like a drum, distorting the air with its power. Her hair was a golden line that ran all the way back to the shell she had lowered from, like an umbilical cord back to the womb.
She stopped in the air above us. I could see her expression. Curiosity. Like she didn’t recognize what she was looking at. Her emotions poured off of her like waves of heat, making everyone take a step back. Some of the fighters even clutched their heads as her feeling became overwhelming.
She was bemused.
But then she realized that what she was looking at wasn’t just a dream.
Her lip curled, sharp teeth came together, eyebrows raised, forming a primal expression I’d only ever seen in ancient paintings.
“Here it comes,” Daria whispered.
Hair curled around the Goddess’ form, shaping into an armour of rippling gold, coiling ever tighter and tighter, tension winding so tight it looked just like shimmering skin.
There was a breath of silence and dread.
Then the golden threads exploded outward in a maelstrom. Like a tidal wave it rushed towards us all, toppling buildings, annihilating trees, pounding glass to dust. The roar grew deafening and I braced as it blocked out the sun, ready to swallow us all.