Eira shrugged, her face pale and lips parted in grim astonishment. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“Whatever they are,” Lumi said, “they’re coming for us.”
Indeed, the giant cloud began its descent. Trillions of tiny wings fluttered, enveloping us in a darkening orb. Without even knowing what they were, I understood their primitive intention: seek and destroy. Eirexis was here. My scythe felt it. Dammit, every fiber in my body reacted to it. But first, we had to ditch this pitch-black swarm.
The blackness tightened around us.
Taeral
Someone gasped to my right, before we were teleported away from the swarm. I got us away from the insect cloud and up to the very top of White Peak Mountain. My boots sank into the few inches of snow, my teeth clattering from the instant cold.
“What the crap, man?!” Varga croaked, panting and gripping his chest.
Nethissis was on the ground, passed out. Lumi and Acantha were quick to check her vitals. The rest of us were too rattled, barely standing. The rarefied air made it all the more difficult for us to breathe properly, as we were more than two miles above ocean level.
The black cloud buzzed below, swirling and squirming nervously, searching for us. Amelia grabbed a handful of invisibility capsules from her bag and passed them around, while we put our red lenses on. Everything had happened so fast, we’d almost forgotten our single most precious artifice.
“What’s wrong with her?” Eira asked, looking at Nethissis, who moaned softly as Acantha shoved an invisibility capsules in her mouth and used a finger to push it down her throat. It only needed a few seconds to dissolve and for the spell to cloak Nethissis, as well.
Acantha pointed at a red swelling on the Lamia’s forearm. “One of the insects got to her. I mean, that’s what they are, right? Insects?”
“They sound and behave like insects,” Lumi replied.
“And they’re poisonous? Seriously?” Amelia groaned, rubbing her face with shaky hands.
“They can’t see us anymore,” I said, clinging to a dangerously loose thread of hope.
“Don’t forget, they have other senses, too,” Raphael warned me. “What type of insects are they?”
Eira shook her head. “I told you, I don’t know! I’ve never seen anything like it!”
“What if they’re pink water prototypes, like those Shills and Titans?” Fallon asked. “It’s not a stretch, is it?”
“It would certainly explain their behavior and venom,” Lumi said as she pushed the neck of a slender potion bottle between Nethissis’s lips, tilting the bottom to let the bright blue liquid pour straight down her throat. “Come on, sweetie, wake up… You have to wake up…”
The following seconds took a long time to pass. We all watched Nethissis, gripped by the fear of losing her. It was too soon… It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.
“If we don’t know what kind of insects they are, we can’t be sure the healing potion worked,” Acantha murmured.
Varga glanced down the mountain, as the winds grew stronger and colder. Snow rose around us, mercilessly pummeling us. The icy flakes bit into my skin, but I pulled my hood closer to my face and managed to resist the increasing offensive.
“They’re moving up the mountain,” Varga said. “I think they caught our scent.”
“And I think they’re not the only ones coming for us,” Eva added, her eyes widening at the sight below. Cracks violently spread toward the mountain base, the earth opening up and releasing hordes of angry Shills. All hell was finally breaking loose, while my scythe continued its increased vibrations, its glow brighter than ever. Less than a mile down, the BemHur Temple awaited. Eirexis was in there, or beneath it, somewhere.
Terror took hold of us as we huddled together, the cold relentless in its conquest.
“I need to zap us closer to the temple now,” I said.
“We’re invisible. We still have a shot at this,” Eira encouraged me.
But something caught my eye, swiftly removing my ability to react. I only heard Varga. “Crap, they’re here! They’re here!”
Nethissis coughed. “Thank the stars,” Lumi managed.
“They caught our scent.” Eira grabbed my hand, tugging, pleading with me to teleport them away, but her voice faded in my head. The black cloud of poisonous insects rose above the mountain peak, swelling menacingly, billions of stingers eager to kill us. Is this panic? Am I panicking?
I just couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything, despite the ravaging urgency of our situation. Maybe Riza could help us instead. Maybe she could take over. But as soon as I glanced at her, I understood that she was frozen, like me, stunned by the sight before us. Never before had we dealt with such violent forces of nature. This was the first time that insecurity had finally wormed its way through us, eating us up from the inside and rendering us virtually useless.
“Tae, please!” Eira’s muffled voice came through.
Time stood still, as if a button had been pressed by the cosmic forces that had been hunting us across the In-Between. Everything came to a sudden halt as I stared into the black cloud, knowing that Shills were working their way up the mountain, as well.
Is this it? Is this where my courage ends? Have I finally broken down?
Eira’s hand found my face, her fingers gripping my chin. I looked at her, my heart angrily drumming in my throat. No. This couldn’t be the end. No, we’d done too much already. Lost too many people. My dad… My dad was in a crystal casing, my mom by his side, all cried out and grieving, praying to all the gods that he may return to us alive. He won’t, unless I save him. Unless I stop this.
“We’re going,” I managed, my resolve blossoming once more.
Eira’s blue eyes were filled with tears and horror, her lips moving, her words begging me to get her out of here. How could I say no to that beautiful face, to her gorgeous soul in desperate need of saving?
Fire spread across the sky, swallowing the black cloud. Hundreds of cubic feet of insects were reduced to ashes in an instant. A bright orange flower exploded above us, then fiercely descended down the mountain, unraveling a river of flames that destroyed everything in its path—trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and Shills. They all burned. Nothing was spared, as the entire ridge was charred and barren, all of a sudden.
“Inalia…” Eira whispered. “Inalia’s here.”
My heart stopped for a moment, understanding the implications. More Shills emerged from the gaping cracks in the plain below, and ginormous roots pierced through the hardened ground, stretching upward. The Earth Hermessi, Leb, was working hard to get to us, after the insects had caught our trail. He was throwing everything in his arsenal at us, I realized, as thousands more Shills began their climb of White Peak Mountain.
The air was supercharged with electricity, lightning spidering across the sky and releasing thunderclaps so loud and so close that my ears hurt. I felt blood trickling from the left one. We covered our ears when a second round of booms tore right through us, lightning stabbing the frozen ground around us. In a split second, it got insanely hot, the snow melting away from all the electrical anomalies. Above us, dark storm clouds gathered, their wrath about to come down on us.
