Chapter 78 Chapter Seventy-Eight - Ezillus

Chapter 78 Chapter Seventy-Eight - Ezillus
I’ve lived enough lives for every person on Earth a hundred times over. I’ve birthed planets, seen life begin and seen it end, but never have I shed a tear. Death is such an expected part of life that I feel no pain when it makes its inevitable appearance. I welcome it like an old friend and wish it well on its journey until we meet again. But watching Gabriella appear out of thin air as that shard of God’s blood pierced her human body, I now understand why humans weep for those they have lost.

I feel tears swimming in my eyes as I look upon my oldest and dearest friend, holding the body of the woman he loves and has lost. I don’t need to feel his pain to know it’s inexplicable. I’ve never seen any being look so devastated, so bereft in all my years. I don’t understand what has just happened or how Gabriella even got here, but already I feel the light she brings to those around her vanishing from this Earth.

“What a stupid thing to do,” I hear Azadu scoff.

I look over at him in disgust but pause when I see how his face betrays his words. There is genuine shock and unease there. I’m not sure if killing an innocent person is what has thrown him or seeing someone demonstrate such a brave act of self-sacrifice, but it’s enough to have him shaken. Nevertheless, he shouldn’t have said those words.

The air becomes electric, and I can see the charges of static electricity going off around Jartre as he carefully places Gabriella’s body on the ground, giving her one final kiss. He looks up at Azadou, his eyes morphing into solid masses of glowing silver, glowing like radiation in the dead of night. Not even when Apaki broke his heart did I see this. I can feel the power radiating from him, his hair whipping around him like he's standing in the middle of a storm…it’s as though he’s letting the celestial power within in him take over as his consciousness slips away. Like some God-like version of disassociation.

Jartre steps around Gabriella, eyes unseeing. I step forward to intervene but am halted in my tracks.

“Ezillus, I need you to break the barrier guarding the Orraikam,” Zarseti announces urgently.

I look at her incredulously, returning to my human form as I glance from her to a supercharged God about to go Terminator on Azadou, then back. “What the hell for?”

“Because Sebastian specifically wished for a barrier that only you could penetrate. I need you to break it so I may gain access,” she says in a rush that is very out of character for her. What the fuck do the sirna King and the Orraikam have to do with the price of tea?

“I really don’t think now is the time for that, Z” I argue.

“Now is the only time! Do it!” she shouts in agitation, shocking me. Never have I heard or seen her act like this, but she’s been guiding us through this battle, so I need to trust she knows what she’s doing. She always does.

I raise my hand, sending my energy out into the universe, feeling for the barrier surrounding the submerged Atlesperean palace. As soon as I feel its vibrating energy, I snap my fingers, disintegrating it instantly.

“There, happy now?” I huff.

She doesn’t respond. Instead, she grabs a hold of Oshmin’s arm and vanishes only to appear behind Jartre, placing a hand on Gabriella and vanishing with her body as well. Now what the fuck is happening?!

“Did she seriously just take Oshmin and leave us to deal with this?” Merlos remarks with indignation.

“That’s the least of our worries,” points out Morrtemis gravely.

We all look toward Jartre as he begins to radiate pulsating white-hot energy.

“Now where have I seen this before?” Azadou mocks antagonistically.

“You can’t be this stupid. If he dies you die!” Morrtemis snaps.

“Fine by me,” Azadou shrugs nonchalantly.

I appear in front of Jartre, grasping his shoulders and shaking them. “Jartre don’t do this. I know you’re hurting but think about what will happen if you go down this path again. Gabriella wouldn’t want this, don’t desecrate her name,” I plead.

His hand clasps around my neck firmly, like a robot running on autopilot. He gives no emotion as he squeezes my windpipe and lifts me off the ground.

“Jartre let him go!” Morrtemis orders.

“Jar…tre…fight it,” I choke out, only to be hurled into the forest, crashing through several Oregon White Oaks, their mighty trunks collapsing on top of me as I crash to the ground.

I throw the tree trunks off my body, springing up, dusting myself off and teleporting myself back to the others. I watch in horror as – with a tight fist – Jartre punches his hand to the side, instantly shattering the fabric of our very existence like glass. Reality as we know it now fractured, the pieces hovering around us, outlined with rainbow fragments as the air around them begins to ripple as it is pulled into the vacuum of nothingness.

“JARTRE STOP!” I shout, launching myself at him in an attempt to stop him, but before I can get close he raises his hand throwing a blast of energy at me so intense it sends me hurtling back into the forest once again, only this time I can feel the ache in my bones from the force of his power.

I can hear the thunderous cracking of lighting and the charge of electricity filling the air, a blanket of cosmic power falling over everything around me. I once again teleport back to the fight just in time to see Azadou’s body go flying, leaving in his wake a strike of lightning fractured into thousands of electric sparks, cracking the air like a fist through a glass window. I watch with dread as Jartre reaches his hands out beside him, using his power to shift the world off its axis, the entire field splitting into deep fissures as the Earth itself cracks and tilts from the force of his power.

I throw my hands out, sending out a wave of my magic halting the fissures from spreading beyond the barrier. I strain myself, holding my position as it takes everything I have to keep the destruction contained as the earth continues to quake beneath our feet. I can’t reverse the damage he’s doing, but I can stop it from spreading for the time being. I just hope Zarseti is doing something to stop this before Jartre kills us all.

“Not this shit again!” Morrtemis cusses, whips made from the earth erupt from her hands and wrap around Jartre like vines. She pulls them tight, doing her best to contain him but Jartre’s energy only continues to grow strong, snapping his binds, forcing Morrtemis to continue to make new ones. “For fuck sake Jartre! Snap the fuck out of it! You’re killing innocent people!”

I grit my teeth as I struggle to hold my position, the ground almost bucking me off my feet as the fissures try to fight against my power. I look over just as Jartre breaks completely free of his bindings. Jartre lets out a deep roar of power, throwing his fist in Morrtemis’ direction, bending the air in front of him like it were cellophane, making reality ripple as his power is projected at her.

Morrtemis throws her forearm up, summoning forth a water shield as Jartre’s power hits it, the water taking most of the impact but still forcing her feet to skid back, digging tracks into the dirt as she fights against the force thrown at her. As her shield vanishes, she summons her flaming bow and arrow, drawing it back with all her strength and aiming for Jartre’s non-vital areas. As she is about to release the arrow, she’s struck in the back with a bolt of purple lightning, her flaming bow and arrow vanishing as she cries out in pain and falls to the ground, her face contorting as she groans in angony.

“MORRTEMIS!” I cry, looking out across the field as an extremely pissed-off-looking Azadou slowly marches towards us, black tendrils dancing around his body with sparks of purple electricity, his purple eyes glowing as he stares down his prey – Jartre.

“If anyone is going to kill him it’s going to be me,” sneers Azadou, just as the air begins to bend and warp around Jartre, the ground beneath him being crushed into a crater beneath the weight of his power as he snarls at Azadou.

The sky darkens, rumbling with thunder as bursts of lightning crack across the sky. Morrtemis struggles onto her hands and knees, a nasty singed wound in her back, no doubt causing her pain as she tries to catch her breath.

“Merlos! Don’t just fucking stand there, do something!” I growl at her in frustration.

She looks at me in exasperation, “What would you like me to do exactly?” she asks apathetically.

“ANYTHING! If I release my hold the whole fucking Earth will split in two, now get off your pampered ass and fucking help!” I screech at her.

She hmphs, tossing her long, wavey blonde hair over her shoulder. “Fine.”

She reaches her hands out in front of her, dark matter blacker than the darkest black releasing from her hands and swallowing both Azadou and Jartre in a ball of darkness. I feel the fissures’ resistance against me lessen as Merlos holds her position, the darkness emanating from her hands continuing to keep the two immortal enemies contained.

Morrtemis slowly gets to her feet, pushing past the pain as she looks from the ball of black mass to Merlos with wide eyes. “Did you just do what I think you just did?”

“Ezillus demanded I do something, and I am,” she grunts, her face indicating the strain she is under as she holds steady.

“You put them in a black hole?” Morrtemis questions incredulously, making me stare at Merlos in shock.

“You all demanded I not kill them; this is the best I can do! I can keep them contained and their powers suppressed, but I have to focus to stop the black hole from sucking everything inside of it. “So, whatever you’re planning to do, do it fast because I can’t hold this forever.”

“How long can you hold the fissures in place?” Morrtemis asks me, looking out at the destruction across the field as all those fighting, hurry to safety.

“I have no idea, but I can’t reverse it until Jartre pulls his magic back.”

Merlos’s brows furrow as she grits her teeth, straining herself more than…actually I’ve never seen her strain herself.

“Merlos…” I trail off.

“They’re fighting against me, especially Jartre. It’s getting harder to hold,” she says forcefully.

“You’re meant to be the strong one,” snaps Morrtemis.

“Hey! I am strong, but you try containing the power of two Gods while one of them has gone nuclear, while also trying to stop the natural effects of a black hole and then let’s see how you fair!” Merlos snaps belligerently.

Morrtemis makes a face, crossing her arms over her chest, “You don’t have to bite my head off,” she mumbles, earning an eye roll from Merlos.

“I can’t keep holding this,” Merlos grunts. “I have to let them go.”

“Merlos, do not let them go,” I grit in warning.

“I have to! Once I release them, Morrtemis and I will bind them and go from there.”

Morrtemis nods her head in agreement and pulls her shoulders back, getting her hands at the ready. “Do it.”

Merlos takes a breath and absorbs the black mass back into herself. Immediately I have to readjust my stance as the fissures resume their trajectory, and I must again exert myself to hold them in place as everything around us resumes quaking. Once the darkness is entirely removed, Azadou and Jartre pant from the strain of being kept on the edge of a black hole. Azadou looks up, his eyes flaring in rage as he throws his hand out, hurling a bolt of purple lightning at Jartre.

Before either Merlos or Morrtemis can react, a figure as tall as us with flowing, eerily familiar dark, forest green hair appears, her hand raised, shocking Azadou as his lightning hits a wall of light, radiating an abundance of power.

I know that light.

It’s a light I haven’t seen in thousands of years, yet the woman conjuring it isn’t the woman I used to know. Instead of dark, ebony skin, I see radiant glowing, fair skin. It takes me a second, but I know those lips and cheekbones anywhere! I have admired their every smirk and smile they graced me with from the moment I met her. Relief fills me and a smile wider than the widest chasm spreads across my face.

“Gabriella?!”