The Awakening ch.27

     Like a ghost appearing from the nothingness Rick manifests in the middle of the Egyptian desert night standing alone upon a sand dune in the place that once held the H.E.P camp site.

 

     “The Black Gate and the debris of the camp must have been buried.” He thinks as he looks about the area, “Maybe that Shadow creature or a freak sand storm? What ever the reason it doesn’t look like anything was ever here now.”

 

     He sighs looking around, “No where to go.” He says to himself, “No direction for my life now with these powers.”

 

     He stops for a moment to look down at his own hands as he makes them emanate a faint blue light.

 

     “What am I supposed to do now?” he asks looking up to the sky as though expecting the stars themselves to answer him. After all with all the weird things he had been witness to in his life (more so recently than ever before) anything was possible. From no more than ten feet in front of him a blinding flash of light appears. From with in this light a figure wearing a gold colored monk’s robe emerges. This figure pulls back the hood with both hands to reveal a man with short cut blond hair, a neatly trimmed almost goatee like blond beard, and golden eyes.

 

     Rick looks at this man who seems familiar to him and than it hits him, “The Inquisition Summoner!?” he thinks to himself in surprise.

 

     The figure to Rick’s surprise answers his thought, “Yes” the man says, “but that is only the form I take to watch over the Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross.”

 

     The man begins to emit a golden light around his body as two great golden wings spring forth from his back with out even ripping his robe as though it wasn’t even there.

 

    The figure points an accusatory finger at Rick and says in a great demanding voice, “You have sided with the destroyer. You have turned your brothers away from the path, and they have even now formed a rogue group. However above all else, you have bedded with the destroyer and become her pawn and plaything.”

 

     He raises his finger to the sky and yells out, “Repent least you be damned for all eternity!”

 

     “An angel!” thinks Rick, “oh dear God!”

 

    As Rick begins to go to his knees to beg forgiveness he is stopped short by a fantastic sight. From his left came a great blue fire ball flying towards them the size of a truck. It rammed into the golden figure, sending him rolling across the sands like a child’s ball. The fire ball had stopped where it had hit the “angel”. The fire ball dispersed to reveal Litmet in her typical winged cat woman form standing before him.

 

    She turns her head to Rick, “After every thing you have seen,” she says, “& you are going to believe this hypocrite of a Hinnen is an angel?”

 

     “Hinnen?” Rick utters under his breath confused, “What’s a Hinnen?”

 

    “They are a race of immortals from the Other World.” states Litmet in a high and mighty tone as though speaking with a child.

 

   The figure some fifty feet away is suddenly engulfed in red flames that wisp about like some mystical aura as he rises to his feet. It is clear these flames are being emitted by the man as his robe is glowing like a hot white fire sending the flames forth from it.

 

       Litmet turns back to the now flame engulfed figure and says with a smirk and a tone of spite, “Playing an angel now I see. Long ago you were making the humans bow to you as a god.”

 

     She stops to look at Rick’s bewildered expression before continuing, “You would have liked for all beings to worship you, you hypocrite.”

 

     She turns to Rick speaking down to him, “This thing tricked me by pretending to be a messenger of the goddess. First he says he wants all of humanity destroyed then poisons me to make himself look good.”

 

    The blazing figure stands there observing the scene pondering over how he can get this hunter back to the order with Litmet here now.

 

    Litmet turns to him once more and speaks with a tone of amusement to this fiery being, “I can’t imagine how you got Rhuen to accompany you to poison me so long ago. Maybe that Dire as you call them now pitied you for facing me alone, or perhaps, knowing him, was just curious to see if your plan would work. Either way since I have woken up he hasn’t done a thing to me, or tried to hinder my plans in any way. You on the other hand have aided my enemies, and now are trying to trick my Litkin in order to turn him against me!”

 

       She releases a low rumbling growl as she continues, “You had better prepare yourself Ahm because you and I are going to fight so I can finally get you off my back!”

 

    Ahm was engulfed by an explosion as though several grenades had gone off beneath him. From the flames of this explosion stepped Ahm in all his Hinnen glory, his golden yellow feathers shining with their own light, his great wings behind him like a cape. Rick estimated this strange man like bird creature was easily twenty feet tall although a bit skinny for its height with its long bird legs and bird leg like arms making it look rather straggly.

 

     As Ahm stood he thought, “She is going to attack me first. Good that solves the dilemma of explaining this to the council of Higher Law.”

 

      Litmet waves the back of her right wing towards Rick, who finds himself suddenly whipped high into the air like a leaf and incased in a blue bubble. To Ahm it looked as though Rick has flown into the air and vanished.

 

    Ahm had little time to think that over as Litmet began to glow with a blue light as she shouted, “Attack you first!? Incase you didn’t notice you moron I already attacked you, now fight already!”

 

   Ahm had little time to remind himself that she could hear his thoughts when he found himself once again cart wheeling across the desert as Litmet had rammed him yet again.

 

    Rick in the bubble watched the clashing forms of Litmet and the one she had called Ahm. Ahm attempted to slash Litmet with his blazing talons time and time again only for her to maneuver away from his attacks as though dancing and with out warning  she rams him head first into his stomach causing Ahm to bend over and clutch his stomach as Litmet had knocked the wind out of him. An all too familiar woman’s laugh draws Rick’s attention to behind him as Sehkmenta in her cat woman form walks into the bubble as though she were passing through a curtain.

 

     She greets Rick who somewhat confused utters a mere, “hi” as his response. After Sehkmenta a tall pale skinned, blood red haired woman wearing what looked like a snake skin bikini also came into the bubble. Rick couldn’t place the face but she somehow looked familiar.

 

      The new woman tips her head to Rick and says, “The name is the Black Rose, Sehkmenta’s half sister so to speak and daughter of Litmet.”

 

     “Hi” Rick utters back still in disbelief as to what is happening.

 

     Rick looks down as Ahm has continued his attempts at constantly slashing back and forth at Litmet with his fire covered talons as Litmet dodges each hit dancing about with her wings like a matador before a bull.

 

      Looking down at the fight below the Black Rose says aloud, “Well it looks like Sehkmenta was right, we’re going to get front row seats to a battle of biblical proportions.”

 

     Sehkmenta projects her thoughts to the Black Rose, “Our mother must be trying to impress her little Litkin here.”

 

     Indicating to Rick with the last part who was too immersed in the scene below to notice the actions of the two women behind him.

 

    Ahm, furious at Litmet toying with him, jumps back and spreads his wings wide. Six red circles appear, three per wing all lined up in front of his wings.

 

     He yells out, “Six lasers strike!” As such six cylindrical laser beams fire from his wings straight ahead from their focal points.

 

     Litmet simply turns her self sideways lining up with Ahm’s body between the lasers in order to dodge the attack, which hit the dune behind her creating six tunnels of glass in it. Litmet spreads her wings wide apparently causing the sudden sands storm that kicks up around them.

 

    “Sand and glass,” she says, “ that which was created from the places that stood in your aura of fire as well as the tunnels you made just now in that dune.”

 

     With an evil gleam in her eyes and a wicked smile upon her face she says, “Let’s see how well your eyelids work bird!”

 

     With that she flaps her wings with one great heave in Ahm’s direction resulting in the storm snaking around her like some great serpent and than hitting Ahm dead on like a battering ram made of sand and shards of glass. Ahm folds his wings around his face as a blue shield of energy surrounds his body like a bubble or force field protecting him from the attack.

 

      As it dies down Ahm looks beyond the edge of his wings to sees the disturbing smile on Litmet’s face,

 

     “Interesting.” she says, “Mere sand and glass, and you need to protect yourself?”

 

     Ahm puts his hands together forming a ball of fire in his palms which grows in size. As he lifts it above his head it grows like a miniature sun to about the size of a house. He tosses the great ball of fire at Litmet who does nothing more than cover herself in an aura of blue flames, and then she flies right through the middle of the fire ball surprising Ahm as she once more rams into him sending him tumbling head over heels across the sands. The giant fire ball melts a large area of the desert behind them into a field of glass looking much like a hokey ring or frozen over pond.

 

    “Damn it,” thinks Ahm as he sits up, “just how strong is she!?”

 

    Litmet laughs as she dances about the air saying, “Been a long time since you fought with anyone who wasn’t weaker than you I see.”

 

     She flies into the air and flaps her wings releasing two arcs of white compressed air like two great blades or boomerangs towards Ahm. Ahm grabs the two bolts in his burning talon hands and tries to keep them from pushing him in an attempt to show he is strong. Had his beak been able to express frustration he most certainly would have done so as he flaps his wings with waves of fire and sends great waves of fire from his hands in his struggle with the wind blades. The blades of air finally dissolve leaving Ahm exhausted.

 

      Litmet hovers above actually feeling sorry, “hmm,” she says down to him, “it seems Rhuen was right the Hinnen are not like the Lit or the Rai, err Dire”

 

      She stops for a moment thinking, “by the time I get used to the name change their probably just going to change it again”.

 

     She says rolling her eyes, “Well better end this before that fool goes and kills himself trying to fight me.” She said while starting her descent back to the sandy ground.

 

    Ahm watched as Litmet landed about thirty feet from him. The next thing he saw left him in a dumbfounded silence echoed by that of Rick in the dimensional bubble. The inside of Litmet’s wings changed into pure shadow, out of which two fur covered clawed arms like those of Sehkmenta pulled forward as the wings shifted further onto her back. As she did so her body grew in size, with her wings detaching from her hips and changing shape to longer thinner versions of themselves relative to her new twelve foot body, as they now looked more like the cliché demon wings seen in so many paintings as they now attached to her body only by the length of her shoulder blades. She folded her wings behind her enjoying the shocked expression on Ahm’s face, which given his face’s limits was little more than a drop jawed beak and wide eyes, yet it was more the emotions he emitted that she enjoyed rather than the actual facial expression.

 

     “Didn’t know the Lit could get bigger did you.” She said to Ahm not so much asking a question as she was stating a fact. “Ah “but that’s not all,” she continued, “in this form I am at least six times stronger than the form that was just giving you so much trouble.”

 

     She stopped, savoring the moment and with a broad toothy smile upon her dark lioness face (quite a terrifying sight given what she is) continued, “I can get even bigger by the way.”    

 

     What she did next caused more horror in Ahm than he ever thought he was capable of feeling. Her body shifted, her front arms became the front paws of a cat as her body got even bigger and more muscular. She fell to all fours standing at least eight feet at the shoulder but with two great wings attached to her shoulder blades. As the wings folded they ran the whole length of her body with the longest fingers even reaching midway along her tail.  Her tail was unusually long with a fluffier than normal appearance, given her large wild cat form, with a fat furry tip like a lion’s tail. Hidden in this furry tip were four small poison tipped silver spikes, two on either side. Down her back flowing from her head was a great mane of hair that flowed on its own like some living shadow. Aside from this hair on the back of her head, her head looked like a black version of the head on a lioness. In all her new form was like a gigantic black panther with great bat wings on her back with flowing shadows between them.

 

    Ahm stood up looking down at her thinking, “Maybe she’s like us, like the Hinnen, just looking fierce in her animal form but actually weaker.”

 

     In response to Ahm’s thoughts Litmet rose to her back legs spreading her wings wide now standing higher than Ahm easily and with her wings had blocked out the light of the moon terrifying Ahm even more. It became clear to Ahm as she stayed standing there that with the energy force being emitted from her wings she was easily able to maintain standing on her hind feet. With one paw turned up ward she growled something under her breath that none of the spectators to this battle could hear or understand, not even Sehkmenta or the Black Rose. A blue ball of energy appeared on her upturned paw which flew up ad zipped forward smacking Ahm with such speed even his eagle like eyes had missed it and with such force as to send him flying backwards about a hundred feet. As he stood back up yet again he realized that in Litmet’s new form that that attack was easily just to her the equivalent of a mere hatchling’s first fire ball. He flew straight up into the sky unknowingly passing right in front of the dimensional bubble which remained invisible to him.

 

   “Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.” He thinks as he flies into the air, “This is not good, not good at all.”

 

    He stops about a mile up looking down seeing Litmet just looking up at him. He is startled by her voice as it is projected into his head in a commanding tone, “I will take this as a sign that you will stay out of my business from now on I trust. Given the rules of my kind as well as the Dire… not to mention the Naj whom your kind have deals with that having lost this duel that you will respect my wishes and stay out of my way from now on.”

 

     With that she reverted back to her twelve foot form then down back to her nine foot form as Ahm flew away from the scene through a portal of fire high in the sky.

 

    On the other side of the burning portal Ahm flies over a great marble city with high buildings. The stairs, the door ways, all in this city is built to the scale of the Hinnen. Below many Hinnen in many forms walk and fly, with colors and heads of Ibises, crows, hawks, eagles, even duck and road runner like heads. He watches as several Hinlen (beings that are identical to humans except they have wings attached to their arms like ancient Egyptian deities) fly by on their way towards the adjoining city of Lower Law. For below him is the city of Higher Law, home of the Hinnen. Above him is a hazy bright sky illuminating the city as brightly as a clear summer’s day on Earth except that the light is coming from the clouds themselves with out any sun to be seen.

 

     He lands atop one of the higher marble buildings and sits there thinking, “Damn it all! We have known of the existence of the Lit for thousands of years and of Litmet herself for centuries before I sealed her away. How can it be that in all this time we never knew they could transform like that!?! Granted we don’t deal with them on a regular basis, but in thousands of years you would think one of them would have done that transformation before now!”

 

      He holds his head in his hand frustrated and looks at the great city his kind created, “We are called a great ancient race by those of this continent and many others; we have built this great city and many others. The Dire are physically stronger than us, we were okay with that. After all they are built more muscular than us even if they are only fourteen feet tall. The Lit were only nine feet tall, they should be the weaker than us! They have no society at all! Even the Dire have family groups and rules. That bitch dares to quote the rules of the Dire and Naj, the rule of the duel!? We don’t have that rule! Yet she would dare to try and hold me to it!?”

 

     Ahm has to stop for a moment as his whole body is shaking from rage. After he calms down a little he continues his internal dialogue, “The Naj have great cities and trade with us. We learned they are stronger than us. No problem, after all they are much larger than us in their true forms. The Aesperians have a strict governmental hierarchy and deal mostly with themselves, some are stronger than us but not most, no problem. The Dire have loosely built clans and a hierarchy based on age, they are stronger than us, no problem. The Lit have no society, barely want anything to do with each other let alone us, and we always thought they were weaker than us!”

 

    He makes a sharp clicking sound with his beak than continues, “Now I know they are stronger than us. That means out of the five great races of this region we are the weakest, we who have a real democratic society, we who built great skyward cities, we who guided humanity towards civilization in the first place! We are the light! We have government! We should be the strongest!!”

 

    He has to stop again and take a deep breath before he accidentally starts yelling out loud from rage.

 

    After several minutes of deep breathing he says to himself, “Strategy, that’s my advantage over them. All I need to do in order to compensate for their strength is just too out smart them. I can still win, can still fulfill my goals!”

 

     He stands to his feet and proclaims to himself, “They may be able to win a one on one fight but Ahm will prevail in the end!”

 

   Back in the desert night on the sands Rick, the Black Rose, Sehkmenta, and Lit (now in the form of the raven haired beauty in the skimpy shadowy cloths Rick had seen her in before) are all standing about just as the fight had ended.

 

    Rick can’t believe what he had just seen, “it would seem she was right.” Said Rick, “Sehkmenta was right about you Litmet, with that display just now their really is nothing we could have done to you. The Elite Paladins would just have been slaughtered had they actually found you.”

 

    Litmet walks over to him placing her hand on his shoulder, “You have a choice.” She said, “You can take my gift and do as you wish with it. Or you could come with me and see things you never imagined before. You would learn the ultimate truths of many things you knew only as myths and legends before.”

 

    Rick looks at the cat like Sehkmenta, at the Black Rose, then back at Litmet herself and thinks, “Gods, demons, angels, and secret organizations. Yet there is more apparently than even these things.”

 

     He chuckles while shaking his head and says to Litmet, “What the Hell, might as well go all the way. After all I’ve already come this far.”

 

      Sehkmenta and the Black Rose take their leave and vanish from sight. Litmet transforms back to her winged cat woman form and sees no fear in Rick’s eyes.

 

    “Are you prepared?” she asks.

 

    Rick stands tall and says, “More now than I was the last time I saw you like this.”

 

     She wraps her wings around Rick pulling him in close to her bosoms as a blue fire surrounds them. As the fire disperses no one is there. They had vanished leaving the desert, leaving this place where a battle between immortals had taken place, as though nothing had happened. The only signs of the conflict being the pond of glass which is quickly covered by the desert sands as the wind blows over it leaving nothing now for any passerby to even ponder over.