Chapter 84 The Eye of the Storm
We stepped through the vortex and into the sun.
The Apex Chamber was no longer a room. The roof had been blown off, replaced by a swirling cyclone of aurora borealis. The walls were dissolved, replaced by towering waterfalls of liquid light.
And in center stage, where once Vespera's throne lay, stood the Avatar.
It wasn't a person. It was the Overcharge given form. It was ten feet tall, humanoid shape made of woven starlight, blooming flowers, and crackling lightning. It had four arms, and its @quot;face@quot; was an ever-shifting mandala of pure energy.
It was beautiful. It was terrifying.
"WELCOME," said the Avatar.
That voice didn't come from a mouth. It resonated in our bones. It sounded like a choir of a thousand children and the roar of a breaking dam.
"THE GARDEN IS COMPLETE. YOU ARE THE FIRST SEEDS."
"It thinks we are fertilizer," muttered Vane at the same time he gripped his pistol.
"It is the consciousness of the planet," Kael whispered, boring his eyes against the glare. "We fueled the magic too much. It woke up. It wants to grow until it covers the stars."
Ryker stepped forward.
He didn't shield his eyes. The Void Heart in his hand pulsed, creating a bubble of grey silence around him.
"Target identified," Ryker said calmly. "Class: Alpha-Omega Entity. Threat Level: Absolute."
He raised the black stone.
"Commencing purge."
The Avatar turned its burning gaze toward Ryker. It saw the Void. It saw the emptiness.
"YOU ARE HOLLOW," the Avatar boomed. "YOU ARE DEATH. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN THE GARDEN."
The Avatar raised one of its four hands. A beam of pure white fire shot toward Ryker.
"Ryker, move!" I screamed.
Ryker didn't move. He held up the Void Heart.
FWOOM.
The beam of white fire hit the black stone.
It didn't explode. It vanished. The Void Heart sucked the energy, eating the light like a black hole swallowing a star.
Ryker took a step forward.
"Your energy is inefficient," Ryker stated. "I will correct it."
He pushed the stone forward. A wave of darkness lashed out.
When the darkness hit the floor, the glowing moss turned to grey ash. When it hit the air, the wind stopped.
Ryker was erasing the room.
"PAIN," the Avatar shrieked, the sound shattering what little glass remained in the window.
In the next attack, however, the Avatar used matter this time and made big talking subways erupt from the floor up onto Ryker's legs.
The thorns pulled at him, tugging on his clothes.
"Nice pile of vines you've got there," Ryker said unimpressed, just touching the stone to them, ending it.
POOF.
He kept walking. He was a walking apocalypse.
"He's going to kill it," the Commander realized. "He's going to erase the Avatar."
"If he erases the Avatar, he kills the magic completely!" Kael yelled over the wind. "We don't want to kill it; we want to balance it! We need to plant the stone in the center, not use it as a weapon!"
"Shove it, Ryker!" I ran toward him, stepping nearly steady as the wind flowed straight through the weight of solid water, "Ryker, stop! You have to plant the stone!"
Ryker didn't hear me. Or maybe he didn't care.
He was fixated on the Avatar. The black stone was brightening furiously, sitting on the massive magical energies in the room, and feeding Ryker's mind to make space for power.
I saw it happening.
Ryker's face was losing all expression. The worry lines and laughter scars were smoothing out. He was morphing into a blank slate.
"DIE, HOLLOW THING," the Avatar raged.
It clapped all four hands together.
A shock wave of creation hit us. Flowers sprang up on my skin. Kael's datapad transformed into a butterfly. The Commander's gun morphs into a snake.
But Ryker?
Ryker roared.
"SILENCE!"
He unleashed the Void.
A massive dome of blackness expanded from his body. It pushed the creation back. It hit the Avatar.
The Avatar screamed as its arm of starlight was dissolved into nothingness.
Ryker jumped.
He tackled the Avatar.
The Man of Nothing and God of Everything smashed into the center of the room.
This was physics being fisted, because as Ryker punched the Avatar, wherever the punch was connecting now dark. The Avatar burned him, seared skin purging his body with pure energy, but Ryker did not flinch.
He gripped the Avatar to the floor and raised the Void Heart to smash it into its chest.
"Ryker, no!" I jumped to knock him down.
I clutched him around the waist and pulled. It was like trying to move a mountain.
"Get off," Ryker growled. He was not looking at me. He was looking at the enemy. "It is resisting. I must delete it."
"You're not a killer!" "You are a Guardian! We are here to bring balance, not death!" I sobbed, digging in my heels.
Then he seemed to pause on the word "Guardian."
He looked back at me.
His eyes were terrifying-they were pools of oil. The gold was gone.
"Define Guardian," Ryker demanded.
"It means you protect!" I cried. "You protect the world! You protect ... me!"
He stared down at me, at my face, at the shining tears flowing down my cheeks.
He blinked.
"I know you," Ryker whispered.
"Yes!" I smiled through the tears. "I'm Elara! I'm your wife!"
"No," he said slowly, with a coldness in his voice. "You are the Vessel. You are the battery."
My smile fell.
"But...," Ryker looked again at the Void Heart in his hand. It was vibrating, demanding to be fed, "the mission parameters... include your survival."
His gaze roamed over the Avatar beneath him. The entity was terrified, shrinking away from the black stone.
"If I delete this entity," Ryker calculated, "the atmospheric collapse will kill the Vessel."
"Yes!" I said. "So don't kill it! Just... calm it down!"
He turned to the center of the room. In its depths was a glowing white fissure in the floor-the source of the Overcharge.
"The Pedestal," Ryker noted. "The insertion point."
He stood up and grabbed the Avatar by its throat of light.
He didn't kill it. He threw it.
The Avatar flew across the room and slammed into the wall, dazed.
Ryker moved toward the fissure.
He held the Void Heart above the crack in the world.
"Elara," he called. He didn't turn around.
"I'm here," I whispered.
"I am about to insert the stone," Ryker said. His voice was becoming mechanical. "The energy release will be catastrophic. Take cover."
"What about you?" I felt compelled to ask. "If you let go of the stone... will you come back?"
Ryker looked at his empty hand.
"Unknown," he said.
"Ryker, please," I stepped toward him. "Try to remember something. Anything. Remember the soup. Remember the dance. Remember the kiss."
He seemed to hesitate for just a moment. He closed his eyes for a second.
"Data not found," he whispered.
Then, he dropped the stone.
The Void Heart fell into the white fissure.
CLICK.
For a second, the universe held its breath.
Then, the Black Stone me the White Light.
The Balance began.
A shockwave—not of wind, but of gravity—slammed into us.
The bright light of the Apex Chamber turned gray. The roaring wind turned into a gentle breeze. The Avatar dissolved into mist.
The overgrown vines on the walls shriveled away, falling to lay clean stone beneath. The storm above the city broke.
And in the center of the room stood Ryker.
He was not glowing. He was not shaking.
He turned quite slowly.
His eyes were closed.
"Ryker?" I whispered.
He opened his eyes.
They were gold again. Bright, beautiful gold.
I gasped. "Ryker! You're back!"
I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck.
"You remembered!" I cried, burying my face in his chest. "I knew you would!"
I waited for him to wrap his arms around me, for the warmth to return.
But his arms stayed at his sides.
"Subject is distressing," Ryker said.
His voice was as polite as calm yet completely hollow.
He dramatically but gently pushed me away.
He looked at me with those beautiful golden eyes, and there was absolutely nothing behind them.
"Mission complete," Ryker said. "We should return to base."
He walked past me. He walked past Kael. He walked past Vane.
He walked out of the room, leaving me standing alone in the silence of a saved world.
He was alive. But my husband was dead.