Helios Fighter

Chapter Seventeen

A Request

"It certainly​ does​ sound like it," Baros said, after I explained my thoughts. "Granted, it would be happening on a galactic scale."

"It's bigger than galactic," I said through a mouthful of burrito. "It's dimensional​."

"You know, I'm aware of your hunger, but please​ slow down!" I swallowed, and burped slightly.

"Sorry."

"What has you so voracious, Mr. Radiatose?" Apollo asked.

"It's that dream he had," Ladasha answered. "And that book."

"What book?"

"The Silent Scribe's​ '313,'​" I said.

"Dare I ask what is so significant about a fictional story?"

"It's not fictional," Ladasha and I both said.

"Ladasha actually witnessed the events in the story happen," I continued. "Hell, she was there! And they're probably​ still happening!"

"Which brings up the issue of a time frame," Ladasha inserted.

"How so?"

"Sometime after I got lost in luminal transit, Pax reunited with Speelsa."

"Yeah. He also found Triounicron, and, I'm assuming, fused with Kai to defeat him."

"Do you know what happened after that?" I shook my head. She explained how Pax's and Kai's fused entity, whom they called "Kaiasmus," fought with Triounicron. Apparently, it wasn't long before they were overpowered and ripped apart, temporarily rendering Kaiasmus inaccessible. Pax then fought Triounicron alone, beating him only through the weakness of the one he'd possessed. Apparently, it didn't end there, because Ladasha said that something worse had risen ​after​ Triounicron was dead. That thing was called "Multirion." Somehow, Pax had struck a "deal" with him to return in three years to finish him off, only to find out that Multirion had wormed his way ​out​ of the deal by contacting a different version of himself from another universe. "I think he's calling the Multirion of​ this​ universe, which is why the solar quakes happened."

"How long do we have?" I asked.

"Not very long," came a voice from behind us. We all turned to see Auroras entering the galley.

"Is Multirion the 'him' you were talking about earlier?" She nodded, grimly.

"He is awakening, this Multirion. To us, he's known as The Destroyer." The pieces didn't quite fit together.

"Destroyer of?"

"Existence," Apollo spoke up. We all turned.

"How do you know?"

"I was once in your position. And when I was, we, as in I and the other Solenoids at the time, had many run-ins with the Heliites. More often than not, it would be Auroras who came to me. She always came, bearing the same message: 'beware the three-hundred and thirteenth prophecy.'"

"​You​ are Number Six!?" Auroras gasped. Apollo nodded.

"You're a Solenoid!?" I asked.

"No longer," he replied. "Most of the time, I was urged to think nothing of Auroras's words, but every time I had the chance–"

"You'd come back," Auroras said, slightly nostalgic, "to hear the full story." Again, Apollo nodded.