Page 78 of Destinies of Diamond
“We were warriors before the chimeras existed,” General Rhodes insisted. “We won’t let this—”
“Now’s not the time for boasting,” Brendan cut him off. “Get to the hangars and evacuate. Quickly. You’re no match for this thing. I fear this might be worse than what happened at Tartarus Base.”
No one tried to question him, but in the end, that made no difference. We were halfway to the hangars when we were cut off by a group of Centaurs.
They looked different from before, more solid, as if they had a real physical form. They were also back at full strength. The female Centaur was very distinctive and I was pretty sure she’d been destroyed in our first battle.
“Well, here we are again,” their leader, Cheiron, said. “You’ve brought us to what we wanted. Now, Your Highness, give us what we need and you may survive this.”
They wanted the tablet. Chimera probably had a similar goal. I didn’t know what would happen if they took it, but I didn’t trust them with such power.
“I think not,” Brendan said. “This technology was a gift from the gods. It’s not your place to decide who uses it.”
“Arrogant human!” the largest Centaur bellowed. “You’re holding a soul in your hand. How dare you claim ownership of it?”
“This soul was entrusted to me and to the Chimera dynasty. I won’t let you steal it.”
By our side, Paul Welton looked very pale. “Your Majesty, perhaps we should—”
“Silence, Lord Welton,” Brendan snapped at him. “I’m the one making the decisions here, not you. Besides, this is a pointless conversation. Centaurs are just as likely to lie as people. Isn’t that right?”
It wasn’t a question directed at me, but I nodded anyway. “My best guess? They’re trying to use it too, just like we did.”
“Unlike you, we have the right,” Cheiron argued.
“I disagree. So it looks like we’re at a stalemate.”
Except we weren’t, because we were caught between two sets of angry, demanding chimeras. The hallway behind us was heating up, and a blurry figure popped up in the corridor.
The chimera’s body was humanoid now, but it had no real gender I could distinguish. The three heads remained, shielding the creature’s true identity. But when she spoke, any doubt I might have had about it disappeared. “There you are. Don’t be in such a rush, humans. You’re the ones who wanted to enslave us. Isn’t it time to pay the price for that?”
The Centaurs recoiled, having obviously not expected this development. I contemplated the merits of feeding the aristocrats around me to them and making a break for it, before discarding the idea.
Selene, what do you want us to do? How are we supposed to save you? You have to live. You can’t abandon us, or our family.
I was no telepath, but my desperate thoughts seemed to reach her anyway. She twitched and her humanoid hands sprouted claws. Her body grew all over again, metal, diamond, and flesh blending together.
That was when I knew. That was when I understood. The answer had been in front of us the whole time.
Before creation, there was always destruction. Brendan had understood that, up to a point, but he’d also been leery of taking things too far.
We were beyond that now. We had to go beyond every possible limit if we wanted to salvage anything out of our torn world.
All of a sudden, I could hear Cerberus’s voice in my head again.“That’s right, pup. You need to be brave enough to take this step if you want to save your family.”
I’d always been willing to dirty my hands for the people I loved. The last time we’d been forced to do that hadn’t gone so well, but we couldn’t turn back now because it was inconvenient.
A distant memory floated through my head, that of Selene at the Mirror Trial, in the tournament. That day, she’d almost been overwhelmed by the intensity of the tachyon blasts directed at her. We’d helped her by anchoring her power and drawing the excess energy into ourselves. She’d been the one to trigger the process, and it had worked because of the telepathy Sphinx had gifted her with. But we’d progressed since then and our connection would go in reverse too.
By now, the atmosphere was saturated with power. It was a piece of cake to reach out and take it.
At the back of my mind, a monster stirred. I ignored it. Instead, I forced myself to stockpile every single ounce of energy I could process.
I sensed the moment the others understood what I was doing. There was a subtle shift in the air as August prepared himself to do the same. Brendan’s eyes flared a poisonous green. Pollux pressed his hand to the wall, bracing himself for what he was about to do. And then, there was an outburst of fire and the whole corridor was bathed in flame.
The members of The Grand Judiciary were no slouches in tachyon manipulation, but they couldn’t withstand the intensity of the assault. Screams echoed all around us as three-quarters of the people in the area were carbonized.
The Centaurs panicked. They could sense the fact that they were being sapped of strength, but couldn’t tell why.
