The Heartstone Saga by Archibald Bradford (short novels in english .TXT) 📕

“And you are a whore for the humans that took my children from me!!” The Chimera sobbed out between gritted teeth as yet more darkness enveloped her chest.

This time she shifted back with one shoulder so that her armour managed to deflect the Valkyrie’s thrust, the ethereal blade skittering to one side with a shriek as chips of obsidian broke free and burnt away into nothing under the might of the golden blade.

Undeterred, Volka’s light blazed ever brighter, her wings lashing forwards to launch a barrage of glowing feathers as she struck again and again with her sword.

Despite Evadne’s rage and bluster, despite her malice and her grief, and despite her stubbornness in persisting long after the rest of her people were dust, the light Volka wielded against her was dissolving her dark armour faster than the demon inside of her could form it.

Eons ago Volka’s goddess led the first Dominars of the Valkyrie into the field of battle to pit themselves against the heralds of entropy. With her divine might and her daughters’ indomitable will together they cast the Unmakers from the mortal world so that life could flourish upon it.

Despite the story being lost to time, and although all but one of the Valkyrie were gone, the being inside of Evadne remembered well its defeat at the hands of her forbears.

And it was afraid.

With a cry of frustration at being thwarted yet again by the angel, Evadne, or more accurately the creature that now controlled her dark heart, opted to flee from the mighty Dominar, diving out of the destroyed chamber and taking to the sky.

But Volka was quick to follow, her golden eyes tracking her foe.

“Not this time!” She swore as her powerful wings carried her in swift pursuit.

Chapter 38:Chaos, Above and Below

While Evadne sought to escape from his bond-mate’s glowing sword, Nameless picked himself up off the floor in the sudden silence, but as he did he felt an odd tickling sensation on his neck as something slipped free.

His hand reflexively snatched at it, only to come away with the remains of Milly’s braid.

About a quarter of it had been consumed by the Chimera’s magic.

“Master! Are you alright?!” The Minotaur demanded as she checked him over frantically.

“Milly...”

Stricken, he held up the braid that meant so much to both of them.

“Oh!” She blinked rapidly for a moment, stunned.

“I’m so sorry baby, I-”

But she interrupted him before he could finish his thought.

“Why that! Dumb... dumb...”

Her face was beet red with a mixture of indignation and frustration as she tried to find words strong enough to describe the Chimera.

With a huff of air out of her nose and a hearty stomp of one hoof, she found them.

“That dumb-dumb!”

“I know how you feel.” He offered sympathetically; “But we need to check for survivors.”

He shuddered though as he remembered the nearness of Evadne’s magical attack, trying to focus by looking out into the open air where a good portion of the room used to be.

“Is Nina okay?” Milly asked with a sullen sniffle.

She was pretty sure she was, but she still felt some relief at Nameless’s nod.

“Yeah, just... angry. She’s not happy to have two buildings dropped on her in the span of an hour. She’s digging herself out now.”

While he spoke he checked amongst the still bodies on the floor, but his hopes were soon dashed; there were no survivors, and his heart ached for them.

But they had to keep moving forwards.

“Come on, it’s not safe.”

Milly sniffled again and pointed out the painfully obvious, highlighted by the dead around them.

“Is anywhere safe anymore?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but then gasped when he remembered what Evadne had said.

“The council! She said something about murdering the council! We need to-”

“They’re dead.”

He turned to face Sadie Essig, his friend and mentor as well as the only other known Empath.

She came out of one of the levitator cars, her shoulders slumped as she looked around at the bodies in the ruined room, her expression hopeless.

“I found them a few minutes ago, I… Xalanth was in the city, if she was here we could have-”

“Don’t.” Nameless said as he pulled the frail woman into a hug; “We don’t get to second guess, not yet. We don’t even know if this is over.”

Nameless was more right than he knew, because down on the streets it was chaos.

A frightened mob of people had taken cover in the auction house, while just outside of it Baron, Ginger and their girls were doing their very best to fend off the Ogre that had kicked in the front door.

A Naiad was blasting her watery form into the Tenebrae’s face whenever she could to distract her while Celeste swooped in to peck at her head and Baron’s Raiju franticly rubbed against each other to build a strong enough charge to take down the massive girl.

On the other side of the building Tora was rolling over with one of her cousins, sobbing and begging her to stop even as the girl bit, punched and kicked at her. Meanwhile Kriss was on the dark Ogre’s back, relentlessly hitting her in the temple over and over with the hilt of her blade to try to knock her out.

And three streets away from them, Grant Semper and his bond-mates were enduring the fight of their lives.

Nameless’s training officer was on the ground with his Gnome on his chest, protecting him with a half-dome of her clay from the two Ogres hell-bent on crushing them.

The blue-skinned girls were raining heavy blows down on it, distorting the rim of it and trapping Grant beneath it.

“Aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-ah!” Linda shouted out in the same oddly slow cadence with which she did everything.

Despite her bizarre outcry, it was