Infernum

A slight glimpse of light here and a mutter of sound there was all Alex caught as he lay there in the darkness unable to move.

“Alex?” he heard briefly in one moment of lucidness.

“Is he okay?” he heard in another.

This was how it went for Alex for what seemed like an eternity of time, until, that is, a glimmer of light stayed in his vision. What started out as a small pinprick of light quickly turned into an overwhelming amount of blurry, fuzzy incomprehensible brightness as Alex began to awaken from his coma.

“Alex!” Alex heard, slightly muffled and difficult to understand. “Alex!” he heard again only this time it was clear and, better yet, it was Hope who called it out. “Oh thank our saviors, he’s okay,” she said as Alex opened his eyes for the first time in three days. He looked up at Hope still a bit dazed.

“What happened?” he asked.

Hope looked back down at him. “You have been unconscious for three days, Alex; apparently, when your Lucian armor added its power to your ribbons it was enough to break through and kill Daire, but as a side effect, it nearly destroyed your ánimam in the process. Half the nanites in your ribbons were damaged greatly during the fight and that’s why you lost consciousness and why I thought I might have lost you,” she explained as she began to form tears in her eyes but never let herself cry.

Alex looked around and found himself on a strange planet, there were lots of plants around that looked like ferns and everything was a vibrant hue of green. The air was very humid, more so than if it were raining, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky that could be seen through the tall trees that defined this jungle from anything on Earth. Just a short distance away, he noticed a large meadow filled with a sea of yellow flowers that flowed gently back and forth in the warm breeze. He was mesmerized by this planet’s beauty and he was easily distracted by all the bright colors, or perhaps he was still a little fuzzy and not quite awake. Hope snapped her fingers in front of his face loudly.

“Alex… Alex!” she called out to him until he focused on her completely. “Listen, Alex, we do not have much time, they will be here any minute now,” she said in a panic.

Alex snapped out of his daze just enough to notice that he was not alone with Hope and that there was another in the immediate vicinity. He shuffled back trying to scoot away from the man who was wearing royal armor.

“Alex, calm down,” Hope said to him as she placed her hand on his shoulder to reassure him. “Look, Alex, I found help and I might have found a way out of this mess, but you need to let this man access your ánimam as you did with me. It’s important!” she said to Alex quickly.

Alex tried to make his ribbons come out, trusting Hope, but there was nothing. It was as if he did not have the ánimam anymore.

“I can’t Hope, they are not working,” he said with a confused look on his face.

“Yes, I know, Alex, it was severely damaged and will take a while to repair itself; this man will have to access it for you, just give it permission,” Hope said, once again in a quick tone.

Alex nodded his head in agreement, and no sooner did Alex agree than the stranger plunged his ribbons into Alex’s back. The pain was excruciating but it only lasted a moment before a feeling of serenity took over like it did when he received his ánimam from Gabriel. The usual voice was heard in Alex’s head, but it was obviously weak from the damage. Alex was just glad to hear his ánimam’s voice again, like an old friend after a long time apart. Alex gave his ánimam permission to transfer data and it wasn’t 10 milliseconds before the transfer was complete and the man had his ribbons out of Alex. Alex couldn’t help but notice that the man was very cold, almost empty with no emotions or feelings as they were connected.

“What is going on, Hope?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, Alex, there is no time to explain, just know that we have been running for a couple of days now and that I found some help. You need to stay here for a while, Alex, you are too weak to fight and it’s imperative that no matter what you stay hidden,” Hope said. She kneeled down next to him and placed her hands on his shoulders

“Promise me, Alex, no matter what you will stay here,” she asked with a level of sincerity that Alex had never heard in her voice before.

“Okay, Hope, I promise, I just don’t understand, that’s all,” Alex replied.

Hope snapped her head up quickly and looked toward the large meadow. “They’re here!” she exclaimed. She looked over to the man “You know what to do!” she said in a calculated and cold tone. Hope looked down at Alex one more time. “Remember, Alex, stay here and don’t move … you promised,” she reminded him as she stood up and ran away in a direction that paralleled the meadow. Alex could barely move, still weak from his ordeal, but he managed to crawl over to a bush he could look through toward the meadow.

Out in the meadow, a porthole opened up and a single royal guardsman walked through immediately followed by the other four, all of which had their ánimams ribbons out and ready for a fight. As Alex watched it was not long before the first contact; the unnamed man that Alex connected with was the first on the meadow immediately followed by Hope who was right on his heels. Alex felt completely useless as he sat there unable to fight alongside her as his ánimam was severely damaged from the last bout and it needed time to repair itself.

The unnamed man was the first to strike, shooting a bolt of energy at Danu, knocking her back several feet. Hope struck next with a quick strike to Aiolus’s chest with a fierce blow from her ribbons. The unnamed man took his cue from Hope and quickly opened a porthole and jumped through it, emerging about a mile in the air above them all. The unnamed man fell to the ground picking up speed as he went until finally opening up another porthole beneath him and falling through it, exiting a few feet away from Aiolus. The unnamed man flew out of the porthole sideways and struck Aiolus in the back with his feet causing Aiolus to fly forward almost fifteen feet smashing into Coeus and knocking them both over.

The unnamed man was only on the ground a second before Ariston pounced on top of him. Ariston held the man down with his ribbons for what was only a split second as both Danu and Probatus simultaneously struck the man in his chest with their ribbons forming a spike that looked like the one Alex had used to kill Daire before. The spike punched through the unnamed man’s armor like a hot knife through butter as the electrified spike was obviously the armor’s Achilles heel. The spike drove its way into the unnamed man’s chest breaking his sternum and three of his ribs and finally crushing his heart. Danu, Probatus, and Ariston pulled their ribbons out, blood still dripping off them, and turned their attention toward Hope.

Hope stood her ground as it was now a five-on-one fight; she dropped her right leg back in an aggressive stance as her ribbons stood erect behind her like four cobras poised for attack. All five guardsmen struck at Hope with their ribbons, and strike after strike she deflected each and every one of them. Probatus took the lead and threw a strike at her; she deflected Probatus’ ribbon then threw a strike of her own, hitting him on the side of his face causing him to spin around to the left before falling to the ground. Aiolus seemed to appear out of nowhere beside Hope, striking at her with his ribbons in the shape of a giant battle ax. He swung his ax at Hope down as hard as it would go; Hope quickly sidestepped the ax and used her ribbons to deflect it further to one side, smashing it into the ground. Hope threw a right hook and hit Aiolus in his chin, causing him to turn his head slightly from the blow; that blow, of course, was quickly followed by Hope’s ribbons striking him for the second time, this time knocking him down.

Hope opened a small porthole in front of her and shot an energy bolt through it, hitting Coeus in his left arm some fifty feet away. Hope quickly followed up with a spike to his arm, straight through his armor and deep into his left bicep. As she pulled her ribbons out blood gushed from the open wound, Coeus grabbed his left bicep with his right hand as blood still ran down his arm and dropped to the ground. Coeus’ armor quickly sealed the wound as his ánimam began to repair his body removing him from the fight.

Probatus lunged at Hope, propelling himself toward her with his ribbons, only to be blocked by her at every turn. Hope was a frenzy of blocks and strikes, fending off the four remaining guards. She opened a porthole behind her and mule kicked through it, striking Danu in the back as she leaned forward and punched her in the chest with a fist encased in one of her ribbons. Punch after punch, blow after blow, Hope did her house proud as she was all but invulnerable to the four’s attacks.

Danu was on one knee from a previous blow from Hope when she looked up at Hope and saw red, all Danu could think about was how this traitorous bitch had killed her precious Daire, how she would never fight with him, talk with him or see him again, all because of her. Danu charged Hope with everything she had; she struck at her time after time with strikes so fast they could barely be seen by the naked eye. As another strike from Probatus flew toward Hope, Danu saw her opportunity and electrified her ribbon and struck Hope with a single blow to her neck. Danu’s ribbon went through Hope’s armor and pierced her flesh just a few millimeters away from her carotid artery. Hope fell to her knees; Danu’s rigid metallic ribbon still in her neck she gasped for air and spewed blood from her mouth. Aiolus walked up to her and shot two ribbons at her in the same manner. His ribbons pierced her forearms, pinning them to the ground and forcing her to lean backward in screaming pain.

Hope screamed as loud as she could with the ribbons still in her neck and arms as Probatus made his approach. He leaned down toward her and spoke softly into her ear.

“Hope, you have been found guilty of treason… Your entire house has been cleansed and will no longer be a stain on our illustrious lords. You’re the last surviving member of Animosis, and now I will cleanse you,” he said without empathy to the traitor kneeling before him. He lifted his ribbons up, and with one fail swoop, they descended upon Hope and struck her in the chest straight through her armor, they penetrated straight through her.

As Hope remained kneeling before Probatus, he watched as the last bit of her life was extinguished; he then pulled all his ribbons apart quickly, eviscerating Hope as her body was ripped apart.

Probatus looked toward the other four guardsmen and spoke.

“Our task here is done, brothers, let us not despair at the death of our fellow guardsmen, but instead let us take comfort from the death of these traitors!” he said loudly as he opened a porthole back to Caelo.

One by one the elite guardsmen walked through the porthole, all weary from battle and anxious to get back home.