Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Quartet of Death

Adam's vision burned red, fire roaring through his veins. The Steel Eye narcotic cocktail bled through his body like ink on paper dulling the pain of impact and clouding his brain with the smoky haze of war.

His heart clamored for freedom, battering itself against the cage of his sternum as he drove the point of his spear viciously through the throat of an incoming void creature. Inside his helmet, the Fealty AI called for blood, and the Steel Eye prosthetic gnashed its gears like the champing of predatory teeth.

Beside him, he was vaguely aware of her.

Sunny, the saint of Anin, the goddess of war in her burning white armor spattered in gore. When she bellowed the entire battlefield trembled at her call, not even the roaring of artillery fire enough to drown her out.

And together they danced to a quartet of death: artillery fire, the clash of steel, the rattle of gunfire, and the cries of the dying. Overhead the battlefield was shrouded in a burning golden haze. The funnel of light that led to the Necritorium burned white hot unable to keep pace with the slaughter taking place upon its doorstep.

Fealty marked three targets, condemning them to death with ease and efficiency only born from machines. Adam charged over the ground, feet tearing at the churned earth. Target 1 lunged to the side, passing inside Adam's spear guard and lunging for his side, but at the last moment, Adam engaged his shield, sending a spike of power down through his armor and into his forearm.

The shield appeared in a sudden eruption from his arm, bursting into existence just in time to deflect Target one's attack. Target one bounced ineffectually off Adam's shield, staggering back a step.

It would be the last step he took, as Adam dropped his shield and fired two rounds from a handgun into Target one's chest.

Target one collapsed.

A red warning light blinked on his HUD, and Adam whipped sharply to his right just in time to deflect the massive spearhead aimed at the junction between his neck and shoulder. The blade glanced hard off the armor of his right forearm, bouncing ineffectually into the dirt. Target 2 was a massive Drev, almost as big as Kanan or Kazna. At only a little over seven feet tall inside his armor, Adam was a good three feet shorter than the Drev.

But that didn't matter, as soon as he deflected the spear, Adam lunged forward, planting the boot of his Steel Eye prosthetic onto the Drev's knee and thrusting downward. Target two screamed as its knee cracked and Adam was propelled upward grabbing it by the throat with his left hand.

Another surge of maker energy poured into his arm like a torrent, and with a sharp, thrust of his will, the glowing golden shield expanded outward and into the space below Target two's jaw, slicing its face clean in half.

Adam kicked viciously forward, catching Target two in the chest, still flailing with pain and confusion as it was propelled backward into Target three. Both remaining targets hit the ground hard, and Adam stepped forward thrusting the leaf blade of his spear into target three's open and screaming mouth.

Target three choked and died on its last meal: cold metal.

Adam wrenched the spear from Target three's mouth and only just had time to register the sudden warning light on his HUD as the enemy chopper dropped into position and leveled its machine guns.

Adam was forced to prayer in the dirt by a hail of gunfire.

Without a voicebox, Fealty couldn't scream, but the sudden eruption of warning dialogues on his HUD was more than enough. Adam shouted forcing a burst of anima energy up and through his skin. The shield he erected was poorly constructed and folded after only a few moments. Bullets fractured against his armor, driving him to his belly.