The Realm Protectors - Chapter 54: Chapter 54

"That should be everyone," Mom says, looking around at the forest. The Otherworld side of the Stelluna gateway sits in the middle of a clearing in the Amazon rainforest, surprisingly close to a nearby village. Mom told me the villagers usually don't stray this far into the forest, but it's a good idea to move them anyway. The villagers weren't pleased when we told them they needed to go to the next town over for the day, but when Mom and the other Elemental Guard offered them some money, they moved quickly.
"Thanks for arriving so quickly, Mom," I say, turning to give her a hug. She seems surprised, but hugs back tightly. Something about it feels like home, and it makes me get a little choked up.
"I'll always be here for you, honey," Mom replies, rubbing my back. I nod and pull away, allowing her to hold me at arm's length. She frowns worriedly at my armor as if she doesn't like the thought of the fight I'm about to walk into, but she doesn't comment. Mom just steels herself and lets me go.
"Lyra will be here any minute," I tell her. She hums in response, nodding.
"Be safe," Mom tells me. I hear the tunnel rip open behind me. "Be smart." The wind kicks up, the tunnel Lyra opened sucking at the air.
"We must go," Lyra calls, her voice quieter because of the wind. "Travel between realms is too dangerous to leave tunnels open for too long." I nod at her and give my mom one last hug. I jog back towards Lyra, and we step through the tunnel together. The tunnel tosses us around like debris in a tornado, making my stomach churn awfully. Bile rises up my throat and I gag as the tunnel spits us out on the edge of Civitastella. I barely see the ground through the spots dancing in my vision before my stomach contracts and all its contents burn up my throat. Lyra looks away as I vomit, trying to find our friends.
"They have amassed a decent army," She hums in thought over my body-wracking dry heaves. Lyra waits while my body calms down, heaves turning into coughs before she turns to me again. She wrinkles her nose at the pile of vomit and starts to walk toward the crowd of people. The shaking subsides enough for me to push myself to stand and follow her.
Lyra was right: Enya, Nile, and Ciana managed to gather what looks like thousands of people from every country, military uniforms spanning across the entire rainbow. Purple-clad Stellune soldiers surround the gateway at attention, with Leve soldiers surrounding them in their sunshine yellow armor. Fajran soldiers dressed in red-orange are the next rings, creating a shield of light and heat to attack the darkness. Soldiers from Mork, Dunia, Tijd, Vesi, and Aria surround that inner shell, each in their respective colors.
Lyra spots someone in the crowd and dives into the throng of people. I call after her but she doesn't hear. I huff and do my best to follow her, pushing through the crowd of soldiers. One of them recognizes the sigil on my armor, and the rest move out of the way. They bow their heads as I pass in a salute. I straighten my shoulders, trying my best to appear like a leader and not like a kid that just vomited a few minutes ago.
"Faris!" Someone shouts. I squint through the bodies to see a girl in yellow running at me, and then Ciana is in my arms. I'm shocked for a second before I wrap my arms around her frame. She squeezes tighter around my chest, nestling her face into the crook of my neck. It's surprisingly intimate for her. My heart flutters and I feel myself flush. The soldiers around us look away for privacy.
"Hi, Ci," A laugh bubbles up my throat.
She pulls back, hands still flat against my shoulder blades. "I was worried something was going to happen and you were gonna be stuck in the Otherworld." Genuine worry flashes in her eyes, and I begin to wonder if Ciana really does like me as much as I like her.
"I'm here," I assure her. "I'm okay. A little shaken up, but okay."
She smiles softly, her ability seeming to make everything about her glow. Enya calls her name and she turns toward the voice, the suns around her eyes glowing gold. She pulls her hands away as Enya, Nile, and the rest of our friends emerge from the crowd.
"There you are," Nile says, slapping me on the back. He cocks an eyebrow at me, staring at the spots on my back where Ciana's hands just were. "We were worried that you got lost in the crowd."
"I did, kinda," I admit, trying to laugh off his gaze. I see Enya smirk at Ciana out of the corner of my eye, and a soft pink blush paints its way across her cheekbones.
"Alright, let's gather up the masses and discuss the game plan," Enya says. "Now what's the best way to do this?"
"Faris could levitate us in the air a little bit, and then amplify our voices," Carter suggests. I nod.
"Yeah, totally," I agree.
"Perfect," Enya grins. "Up we go."
I hold my hands out in front of me, palms up, and focus on the air beneath our feet. Inhale, exhale, inhale, I lift my palms and my friends and I are lifted into the air on a floating platform. Ciana squeaks at the height and I slow our ascent, coming to a stop just above the soldiers' heads. She looks down at her feet, shifting slightly closer to me. It warms something inside me that she trusts me so much and yet still looks to me for comfort.
Focus, Stellato, I think to myself. Enya clears her throat, her voice amplifying across the masses as I wave my hand over the crowd.
"Soldiers of the Realm," Enya begins, the whorls of fire around her eyes glowing. "We thank you for your brave service. Based on the locations our scouts have spotted Gray at these last few weeks, he's moving at considerable speed and heading towards this gateway, presumably to destroy it and finish his devastating mission for the Nox. According to our calculations, he and his Nox army will arrive in a few short hours. That gives us just enough time to prepare and be ready to fight back with everything we've got." Battle cries go up from the Vesi soldiers, and soon the rest of the army is shouting along.
"Gray knows that he was defeated last time, and I'm sure he knows that we've been somewhat tracking him. He's expecting us to be ready to fight back, so we need to be ready for a large scale attack. They might bring their whole army. They might even bring their commander-in-chief." Nile says to the crowd. "But we have a plan, and we believe that it will work."
Fifty-eight... fifty-nine... sixty, I count to myself, staring at my watch. It's been three hours since We shared the battle plan with the soldiers, three hours that we've all been standing in attention, hands at our sides and ready to fight. Tension weighs heavy over the entire army as we all wait for that one battle cry that will start this miniature war. Where are they?
I look around the crowd, finding each of my friends. Enya told me and some of the better air elementals that she wanted us in the air, ready to make other soldiers fly on command to hit the Nox with some aerial attacks. We're floating over their heads and have been for three hours. A few of the other elementals have taken turns descending for a while, so they don't wear out their strength. Meanwhile, I haven't even broken a sweat. I bend the acoustics again, lowering the volume of the softly murmuring army and raising the volume of the forest around us.
"Nothing yet," I report to Enya, standing at attention below me. She nods, her red hair tied back away from her face. All the girls somehow found time to fix their hair, pulling it back and getting it ready for battle. Avani and Lyra's hair is braided back from their faces in matching styles, just like all the other Dunians and Stellunes with thick hair. Ciana's is braided in what looks like a crown around her head, pulled into a lightly curled ponytail down her back. A few stray curls escaped in the slight humidity, framing her face and making her seem even more beautiful.
Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I turn my attention back towards scouting. I'm about to descend and take a water break when a sound deep in the forest catches my attention. Waving my hand, I bend the acoustics again, muting our soldiers and amplifying the forest. There it is again: the faint stomp of approaching feet.
"Faris?" Enya asks, noticing my tension.
"They're coming," I whisper. She stiffens as I repeat, "They're coming!"
Enya whistles sharply, the amplification carrying it over the whole army. Everyone goes silent and still, waiting for her commands.
"The Nox are approaching," She tells them. "On foot from the..."
"East," I tell her.
"From the east," She finishes. "Prepare for battle!"
War cries go up from the soldiers beneath me as they turn around and face the east, calling their elements to their hands. Everyone shifts their weight to the balls of their feet, waiting in athletic stances for the approaching fight. It's so silent –– the only audible thing is the army breathing. The sound on stomping feet carries to us as a giant cloud of shadow begins to seep between the trees in front of us. My heart pounds in my chest as it expands, covering the entire forest in front of us. Bodies begin to take shape from the fog of darkness, standing at attention in their pitch black armor. Our own darkness elementals, dressed in gray to distinguish themselves from the Nox, do their best to try and clear the haze away from the approaching army.
"There's so many of them," Ciana says from next to Enya. I hear their voices in my ear loud and clear, having amplified my friends voices for myself so I could hear them during the battle.
"Yeah," Enya replies. "But there's more of us." She sets her shoulders, facing the army with a grim and terrifying expression. Enya is ready for war. I look down at them and watch her eyes find Nile in the crowd. They nod to each other once, an intimate and solemn look that seems to convey all of their emotions for each other, as if they expect one of them to not come out alive. I grit my teeth against the awful thought. Ciana's hands shake slightly but she stands strong on her feet, ready to fight for her new home. She looks up at me, and I nod at her, trying my best to communicate my love and support. She smiles gently, nodding back before steeling herself again.
"Be prepared for Gray to tunnel close to the gateway," I hear Lyra tell the other space elementals. "Be on your guard."
"Shields up!" Enya commands. The air behind me sizzles with heat as the fire and light elementals form shields of fire and light to keep away the darkness. A breeze kicks up as air elementals ready themselves for battle, humidity leaving the air as water elementals draw the water to themselves. A cry goes up from the Nox army before Enya commands shouts the final command:
"Charge!"
The Nox soldiers come sprinting at us, the first few rings of our defense shouting as they sprint to meet them. A rainbow of colors mixes as elements begin to explode around us. Geysers erupt under the feet of the Nox, while bubbles of slow-moving attackers show the power of the time elementals. Air elementals charge from the sky, sending the Nox soldiers flying into the air. The Nox fight back, sending spears of shadow into our army. I wince as I see bodies fall to the ground, knowing that we'll have a mass funeral to plan when this battle is over.
Screams go up from one side of the army, stealing my attention. The Nox soldiers around them raise their arms, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
"Look out!" Someone screams. The Nox soldiers throw their palms towards us, and our entire army is engulfed in shadows. My heart pounds in my chest as I calm wind to my hands, trying to blow away the shadows. It barely pushes it away, just allowing me to see the first few rows of soldiers around me. Light pulses from behind me, the fire and light elementals fighting against the shadows with light of their own. I hear Ciana's voice in my ear, a battle cry as twin pillars of light erupt from where she was standing, pushing away the clouds of darkness. Nikolina's voice rings in my other ear as she uses her abilities to shove away the darkness around her. The Nox scream back as light breaks through their shield, allowing pockets of light to illuminate the battlefield. However, much of it is still cloaked in darkness.
Enya screams from somewhere ahead of where she should be standing, and I see that she's broken away from the line of defense. She lights up the area around her, charging into a crowd of Nox with fists blazing. The takes down three of them in what feels like seconds, working her way through the soldiers impressively. Ciana breaks formation too, telling the people beside her to keep defending. She runs towards another crowd of Nox, throwing spears of light into them. Cries of pain erupt from her targets, and I feel slightly proud at her progress.
The smell of burning flesh reaches my nose as Enya continues her rampage, and she's soon joined by war cries from Nile and other Vesi soldiers. Water bursts up from the ground, blowing Nox soldiers in the air where they're carried off to who knows where by gusts of air elemental wind. Nile spins towards Enya, sending waves of water in her wake, knocking out droves of Nox soldiers and putting out the fires Enya accidentally started.
More screams erupt as loud, booming cracks erupt from the ground. Avani's battle cries echo in my ears as she sends Nox soldiers plummeting to their deaths in her canyons, closing the ground beneath them and effectively burying them. Other soldiers are killed by her thorned vines erupting from the ground and strangling them to death.
I've said it once and I'll say it again: that girl is scary.
We've already taken out so many of their soldiers, and yet they keep emerging from the forest, almost as if they have a tunnel hidden inside where they can keep coming from––
"Lyra!" I yell, amplifying my voice to her when the pieces click together. I can just make her out beyond the shield of light, tilting her head in acknowledgment. "They have a tunnel in the forest, bringing in more soldiers from their base. We need to shut it down!"
Lyra nods, grabbing Carter's wrist before slashing open a tunnel. The two of them step through, leaving the other space elementals to stand in attention.
I spin around again at a scream from Ciana, who's starting to lose her fight against the Nox soldiers. One of them managed to grab her through a blind haze, wrapping their hands around her throat. She chokes, clawing at his hands as she tries to breathe. A gasp escapes me and I throw my hand out, blowing the other Nox soldiers away from them before they can make the situation any worse.
Ciana's face is beginning to turn pale from the lack of oxygen. I clench my fist, grabbing the air in the man's lungs and ripping it from him. He turns a deathly blue and drops Ciana, falling to the ground. She gasps for air, kneeling on the ground next to her attackers body. She kicks it away, turning her face towards me, searching among the clouds of darkness. Purple bruises are already starting to form at her throat, but she gets back on her feet anyway. A pained and terrifying scream claws itself from her, and she claps her hands towards the incoming soldiers. A deathly wave of light charges toward them, stabbing each of them with a lethal dose of light poisoning.
"Atta girl," I smile to myself.
I tune in to a sound behind me, a slight rip in the air as Lyra and Carter return, both splattered with blood. Carter smiles up at me, nodding in confirmation. Their secret gateway was destroyed. I nod back, proud of my friends. The tide seems to be turning, the battle going in our favor. I'm about to turn away when Lyra goes still, turning to the side of the gateway. That's when I hear it.
Everyone knows that gateways look like rips in the air, but something most people don't know is that if it's quiet enough, you can hear them rip too.
Lyra and the other space elementals sense the tunnel opening among them, turning towards it. Gray emerges with Ravena, both clad in black tactical armor. Ravena scowls, gathering shadows at her hands and sending them into the unsuspecting space elementals. They seem to fall in slow motion, and I realize that Carter has taken control of them, trapping them in a time bubble. Ravena scowls deeper, winding her hand back to strike. Lyra shouts to me before opening a tunnel underneath their feet. The tunnel opens above my head, and I spare a fraction of power to trap them in a sphere of air. Ravena pounds her fists against the bubble in frustration, Gray still trapped in a time bubble from Carter.
Black streaks across my vision, a spear of shadows from one of the Nox soldiers. I shout to the soldiers behind me, but it slips through their shields, breaking apart slightly, and stabbing Carter in the chest.
Lyra screams and Carter's focus wavers, allowing Gray to open a tunnel and disappear with Ravena. I growl as her cackle echoes over the cacophony of battle sounds.
"Damnit!" I scream, searching the crowd for them. Lyra is crouched over Carter, trying to peel off his breast plate to see how far the spear punctured. She manages to rip off the front of it, making the spear dissolve and revealing the black, jagged wound on his chest.
"Ow," Carter says with a wince. Lyra stares at the wound in shock. It's bleeding slowly, a good sign that it's not too deep.
"Get him back to medical!" I tell Lyra, my voice carrying straight to her ears. She nods and scoops Carter into her arms, tunneling deeper into Civitastella.
"Come on!" Nile rages, screaming as he sends wave after wave into the Nox forces. They go down in droves, some of them drowned, and an unluckier few burned to death by Enya's raging inferno. I can't even see her through the flames anymore. She just leaves a trail of smoking bodies and the smell of burnt flesh behind her. I gag and send the scent away from us and into the Nox army. Ciana blazes through them as well, sending blasts of light left and right. Soldiers go down screaming, clawing at their eyes. Nikolina weaves in and out of the Nox soldiers like an invisible assassin, a dagger in her hands. It's the bloodiest job, but one the darkness elementals have to deal with. They do what they can to turn the Nox's powers against them, but eventually they have to resort to hand-to-hand combat. Avani takes care of the rest, opening up giant chasms in the ground to send any other living Nox fighters to their death.
Their numbers are dwindling fast, no longer streaming out of their tunnel in the woods. Lyra tunnels back, this time right below me. She must have left Carter at the hospital. She points towards a clearing in the soldiers, where a tunnel appears. Gray steps through without Ravena, but every single one of my friends and I turn towards him.
One giant battle cry erupts from the seven of us as we descend upon him. Avani gets there first, wrapping him up with vines thicker than he can handle. Lyra traps him in a tunneling loop, not allowing him to go anywhere. Ciana, Enya, and Nile get there next, staring him down with their elements at the ready. I arrive last, descending from the sky like a superhero, landing with grace and throwing my hand out, stopping air from traveling to his lungs. He struggles for a minute before finally falling unconscious. We all stand panting around him, looking at each other with pride.
We got him, I think to myself. Everyone ducks as a huge cloud of black covers the sky, echoing with loud caws. A swarm of crows swoops over the battlefield, and all the remaining Nox soldiers retreat into the woods. Our soldiers send half-hearted attacks after them, but they ultimately escape with less than a quarter of what they came here with.
"Did..." Ciana pants. "Did we just win?"
Nile looks around at the piles of bodies left behind, Nox black and Realm rainbow both. Then he looks back at the unconscious Griffin gray, and nods.
"Yes, Ciana," Nile says, grabbing Enya's hand. Both of them are covered in mud and soot. "We won,"
The loudest victory cry I've ever heard resonates from our army.