Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Pillar of Fire

The results were instantaneous, as soon as Kazna's hand came down on the switch, she opened the floodgates to the very depths of hell. All down the length of the tunnel, plunging into the core of the planet, gates began to slide open and lock back, rattling like dominos as the heat began to spill upward. Burning orange light poured upwards from the pit as the last gate slid open far beneath their feet.

A pinpoint of orange light flared to life and then grew, clawing its way up the pit walls and toward the sky.

Adam threw himself back away from the pit's edge.

Ramirez grabbed Krill by the back of his armor and hauled him to the catwalk.

Just in time

A wall of pure burning orange energy erupted from the pit, cutting like a laser into the heavens, lighting the ground from horizon to horizon in the fiery light of millions damned, their souls fleeing towards the blackness of space and Apollyon's open arms. And with it came heat, incredible and terrible. The breaches in Adam's armor were immediately fuzed shut, while the skin beyond was scorched to deadness, cooking him where he sat.

He screamed, not even the opiates in his blood able to stop the incredible pain.

Like burning alive.

But as the suit fuzed shut, Fealty was able to block the remaining heat as he rolled away from the pit's edge.

Adam found himself lying on his face against the superheated metal, waves of energy washing over him as Apollyon's pillar of light cut a tear in the fabric of nature, dwarfing him in its power and immensity. Sparks rolled in slow curtains past his face, and smoke danced like the shadows of the dead come to haunt him. He rolled onto his side, and up towards the sky. The beam was too bright to look at it, turning the sky orange, but towards the edges of the horizon, past the smoke and wispy cloud cover, he could still see flashes, the silhouette of gods fighting in the vastness of space.

Ash rained from above, drifting toward the ground like lazy snowflakes on a winter's day. He grimaced and squeezed his eyes shut, but instead of finding the back of his eyelids, he saw nothing but an ash-stained battlefield and a red sky pierced by the cries of the dying.

Even in the end, his sins come back to haunt him.

He squeezed his eyes even tighter, but all lamentations and prayers were useless now. Not when God was fighting a losing battle.

And had been for a long time.

He understood that now.

Apollyon had been gaining a foothold for centuries, pulling away the architect's power, corrupting his greatest lieutenants; slowly tipping the scales in his favor. Why else would the architect have been forced to ly on a ragtag group of ineffectual constructs to save them?

He had rolled the dice and lost.

Adam had been the losing bet.

Tears rolled in a stream down his cheeks as he called up memories of all the ones he loved.

His children, Astra, Nyx, and Kay, Sunny, his family, his friends, even his dogs.

Another short sob escaped his throat as more sparks came to rest on the metal next to him.

He had failed them.

It would have been one thing if his life had just ended, but now he would be alive long enough to ponder it before they all died.

His eyes had gone hazy with tears, enough so that when the silhouette parted the smoke, he didn't immediately recognize who it was, just a black figure against a wall of fire.