Chapter 96 The Scorched Earth
The air was heavy with the smell of gasoline and impending violence.
I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ryker at the edge of the agricultural sector. In front of us, the corrupted cornfield moved like an ocean of black oil that had come alive. The stalks now stood at tree height while they became as sharp as obsidian and produced sounds which matched the noise of grinding glass.
"Ready?" Ryker asked. He didn't look at me; his eyes were locked on the rising army of mud-monsters pulling themselves free from the soil.
I said ready but my hands showed signs of shaking. My chest felt intense vibrations from the Origin Stone which warned me about the magical presence before us because it existed in a wrong and inverted state that craved more power.
"On my mark," Ryker ordered.
He raised his Star-Metal sword. The blade appeared to burn with orange flames because he had poured chemical accelerant on the steel's perimeter.
"Ignite," Ryker commanded.
He swung the sword in a wide arc which caused fire to crash into the first row of black corn.
Elara! Now!
I acted without delay. I pushed my hands forward with open palms while I shouted loudly.
"WIND!"
I didn't make a quiet wind which moved gently. I summoned a gale. I pulled the air from the upper atmosphere and slammed it down into the field.
The wind caught Ryker’s fire. It caused fire to spread while flames turned into a spiraling motion which created a fire vortex. A giant fire tornado emerged and destroyed the crops.
The sound produced an ending destruction force.
The firestorm tore through the Void Walker front lines. The mud-monsters produced a shriek which sounded like metal being torn apart while the heat changed their body moisture into steam. They blasted apart which caused dry grey dirt to rain down on the field.
The black corn caught fire instantly. The black corn did not burn like normal wood. The sap inside burned with a sickly green flame while popping and whistling sounds erupted from boiling inside.
"Push it back!" Ryker yelled, shielding his face from the intense heat. "Burn it all the way to the perimeter wall!"
I gritted my teeth, pouring more energy into the wind. The tornado advanced further into the field while it created a path which burned everything in its way. The situation appeared to be going in our favor. The fire eliminated every obstacle as Baron had claimed.
But then, the field reacted.
The field remained standing as it remained alive.
The location evolved into a new form.
"Ryker, look!" I pointed, gasping for breath.
The firestorm was raging, but fifty yards back, the black corn stopped burning.
The stalks remained standing. Instead, they bent. They formed a heavy wall of wet black plants which locked together. The sludge oozing from the ground rose up, coating the wall of corn in a thick, shiny layer of slime.
The fire produced a hissing noise against the slime which extinguished the flames.
"It’s fireproofing itself," Ryker said, his voice low with disbelief. "It’s secreting a mucus which will reduce the temperature of the surrounding area.
"That’s impossible," I said. "Plants don't react that fast. That’s... that’s tactical.
"It’s not a plant," Ryker grimaced. "It’s a hive.
The wall of black corn suddenly opened up.
The Void Walkers didn't charge out blindly this time. They marched.
The people moved out from their positions while forming a shoulder-to-shoulder formation which used black roots as makeshift shields. A larger entity moved behind them.
"Incoming!" Jaxon screamed over the radio. "West flank! They're circling us!"
I looked to the left. A squad of Grey Knights was holding the road, firing their rifles into the smoke. The mud-monsters chose not to attack the knights directly. They were digging underground.
The asphalt beneath the soldiers cracked. Black tendrils emerged from the earth and wrapped around the soldiers' legs, pulling them down.
Jaxon gave the order to retreat by saying, "Retreat! Jaxon ordered. "Fall back to the hover-cars!"
Ryker yelled into his comms, "Baron! The wolves! Get them out of the melee! The infection spreads by touch!
Baron said, "We're trying! But they’re fast! They don't bleed, Ryker! We bite them, and our mouths just fill with tar!
I saw a massive grey wolf—one of Baron’s lieutenants—lunge at a Void Walker. The wolf sank its teeth into the monster’s shoulder.
The monster didn't react. The featureless sphere of black mud turned its head to grab the wolf by the neck.
The black infection spread instantly.
I watched in horror as the grey fur turned black where the monster touched it. The wolf yelped while it thrashed his body. The yelp which escaped from the animal showed something was seriously wrong. The animal was undergoing biological rewrites.
"Don't let it turn!" Ryker shouted. He was already moving.
He ran faster than human limits allowed while he sprinted through the damaged asphalt road. The monster did not become his target. He attacked the infection instead of attacking the monster.
Ryker leaped, swinging his sword. He cut off the monster's arm which allowed the wolf to escape.
The wolf showed signs of struggling on the ground while a black stain spread from its neck toward its heart. The wolf's eyes were rolling back until they turned completely black.
Ryker landed beside the wolf. He looked at Baron, who had just shifted back into human form, naked and covered in soot.
The blank stare of Baron said, "Do it. The blank stare of Baron said, "Do it. Don't let him become one of those things.
Ryker acted without delay. It was a mercy.
He drove his sword down. The wolf went still.
Ryker stood up while breathing hard. He gazed at his sword blade. The orange flames had extinguished. The Star-Metal emitted a hissing sound while it became stained with the black blood of the Void.
"It’s learning," Ryker said, staring at the army of mud-monsters that had stopped advancing.
They were watching us. Hundreds of faceless heads turned in our direction. They weren't attacking anymore. They were waiting.
"What are they doing?" I asked, running up to Ryker’s side. I kept the wind shield up, but I could feel the pressure of the enemy pushing against it.
"They tested our defenses," Ryker analyzed, his voice slipping back into that cold, tactical cadence. "They determined that fire is a threat, so they neutralized the fire. They determined that the wolves are melee fighters, so they engaged in close quarters to infect them. Now they are assessing the threat of the Vessel."
"Me?" I whispered.
"You are the Battery," Ryker said. "You are the only thing here that creates pure energy. They want you."
As if hearing him, the army of monsters parted.
A figure stepped out from the rows of black corn.
It wasn't a mud monster. It was a corpse.
It was the body of a farmer, still wearing his blue coveralls. But his eyes were gone, replaced by burning black voids. And his mouth... his mouth was sewn shut with black vines.
The corpse raised a hand. It pointed a finger directly at me.
“MOTHER,” a voice rasped.
It didn't come from the corpse’s mouth. It came from the cornfield itself. A rustling whisper that sounded like dry leaves sliding over stone.
“MOTHER... IS... HERE.”
I stumbled back, clutching my chest. The Origin Stone flared hot, burning my skin.
"It knows what I am," I gasped.
"It thinks you’re its mother?" Jaxon asked, horrified, reloading his shotgun.
"No," Ryker stepped in front of me, shielding me with his body. "It thinks she’s the food source. The Void is hungry. And she is the biggest meal in the city."
Ryker raised his radio.
"Kael," Ryker said calmly. "Do we have the orbital strike capabilities online?"
"Negative," Kael replied instantly. "The satellite grid is still down from the storm. But I can give you a localized seismic pulse from the Spire’s geothermal tap. It will shake the ground hard enough to liquefy the soil."
"Do it," Ryker ordered. "Target Sector N-1. Danger Close."
"Ryker," I grabbed his arm. "Liquefy the soil? That will destroy the entire harvest! The city will starve!"
Ryker looked at me. His golden eyes were hard, but not empty. He wasn't Hollow anymore. He was making a choice.
"We can grow more corn," Ryker said. "We can't grow more people."
He turned to the soldiers.
"ALL UNITS! FALL BACK! GET TO THE CONCRETE!"
We scrambled backward, retreating from the dirt field to the solid pavement of the main road. The monsters surged forward, sensing our retreat. They shrieked, a tidal wave of mud and claws rushing to catch us before we escaped.
"Hold on!" Ryker grabbed me, pulling me to the ground behind a concrete barrier.
RUMBLE.
It started as a vibration in my teeth. Then, the world dropped.
The ground beneath the cornfield turned to liquid. The seismic pulse hit the agricultural sector with the force of an earthquake. The soil lost its cohesion.
The army of mud-monsters didn't have time to react. The ground simply opened up and swallowed them.
The black corn sank. The monsters flailed, trying to swim in the churning earth, but the vibrations pulled them down. The entire field collapsed into a massive sinkhole, dragging the corruption down into the dark.
Dust billowed into the air, choking us.
We lay there for a long minute, waiting for the shaking to stop.
When the dust settled, the cornfield was gone. In its place was a crater, fifty feet deep, filled with churned mud and broken roots.
"Is it dead?" Jaxon asked, coughing, peering over the barrier.
I stood up, walking to the edge of the crater. I reached out with my senses, feeling for the cold signature of the Void.
It was faint. Buried. But it wasn't gone.
"No," I whispered. "We just buried it."
Ryker walked up beside me. He sheathed his sword. He looked down into the pit.
"It retreated," Ryker said. "It realized it couldn't win this battle, so it withdrew to conserve resources."
"It’s intelligent," Baron said, joining us. He looked at the dead body of his packmate, lying on the road. "It thinks. It plans."
"It’s a Hive Mind," Ryker confirmed. "Every root, every spider, every infected person... they are all neurons in a single brain."
He looked at the horizon, toward the Deadlands.
"And the brain is down there," Ryker said. "Waiting."
I looked at the devastation. We had won the battle, but the cost was high. The food supply was destroyed. A wolf was dead. And the enemy knew exactly who we were.
"What do we do?" I asked.
Ryker turned away from the pit. He looked at the city—at the Spire glowing in the distance.
"We stop playing defense," Ryker said. "We can't fight a swarm by swatting flies. We have to find the Queen."
"Another Queen?" I asked, feeling a migraine coming on. "I hate Queens."
"Not a person," Ryker said. "A source. The Rot is coming from somewhere specific. A heart. We have to find it and cut it out."
He tapped his comms.
"Kael, prep the lab," Ryker ordered. "We’re bringing back samples. And tell Vane to warm up the drill. We’re going underground."