03 Atavism of the Ifrit Read online

  Atavism of the Ifrit (Book three of the Spirit Guide Saga)

  Published by H. Lee Morgan at Smashwords

  Copyright 2014 H. Lee Morgan

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  Chapter 1

  Anguish, agony, terror, loss, sadness, depression, fear, dread, dread, panic, despair, misery.

  These mere words could not come close to grasping the depths of feelings consuming every shred of thought and cell within one who watched her one true love get struck down for no other reason than by blind zealots and cowards. Nothing, absolutely nothing could compare to being forced to watch others revel in the triumph of unjust murder for the simple act of living.

  There is no classification to what Kanade felt as she watched her own father cut off her soul mate’s legs and was too late in stopping her mother from throwing the spear of golden-white light from piercing through his turned back.

  Ethan’s back.

  Her bloodcurdling scream alone expressed the anguish at watching his chest get blown apart as he toppled like a felled tree. Great metallic blue wings like an eagle could not catch enough air to propel her fast enough to catch him before he fell to the ground. Tears watered her vision, but she saw the look of shock of the knowledge of a true end fast approaching. Slit red eyes with flecks of gray locked upon hers and she knew he saw her as his eyelids closed, a faint ghost of a smile touched one corner of his mouth.

  Then it went slack.

  Again she shrieked in terrified despair “NOOOOO!!!!!” Large wings spread as Kanade’s full bodyweight hit the island she once saw as a beautiful getaway paradise. The ground sunk as she hit the land and grabbed his face with shaking fingers. “Ethan! No! Darlin’, don’t you do it! Don’t you dare die on me! Open your eyes! OPEN YOUR EYES!!!”

  Nothing. No response. His body stayed limp and his reddened complexion of a fierce and lost struggle paled to pasty white. The white complexion of a dying body.

  Tingling weakened instant by instant as she touched him. Her hammering heart tore as it knew it’s other half was leaving forever, never to exist after dying. Usually it was like constant electricity when they touched and had grown stronger the deeper their love became. It was unbreakable and the electricity their bodies shared would kill anyone else, but each moment his life slipped further and further away, the tingling waned. Desperately she wished she could help and as she held him she instinctively gave her power to him, trying to bring him back from the edge. Her telepathy couldn’t find him as his color became waxier. Only the faint tingling let her know that he had a spark and wasn’t gone yet, but it too weakened faster and faster.

  Kanade fought so hard her normally golden irises began to glow the same iridescent blue like her wings and long hair.

  Still he was leaving her, unable to recover from the grave wounds.

  Panther shook in a fury he hadn’t felt in tens of thousands of years as he stood over his master’s mangled body. He didn’t see the attacks till it was too late though he stood beside a new master worthy of his unyielding allegiance. Partially glowing blue eyes set in a jaguar’s sleek head flared as he took in the severed legs cut off just above the knee and the gaping wound that was once a proud chest of a hard working man. The legs could have been reattached or re-grown in time, but the power of an Enforcer’s lance that blew through the chest from behind burned body and energy. But the aim was clear.

  The heart.

  And it was now gone along with near half the chest.

  Vaporized by light.

  Panther, a Balam, denizen of Demon World and most powerful of his race went deathly still while his heart pounded in his ears and drowned out a thunderous boom of lightning as the purple clouds in the heavens let loose their worst. The already gloomy day seemed to share in his new mistress’s grief as she didn’t know she sobbed and whimpered with her head pressed to her destined one. Nor did she even realize Panther stood in pooling blood right on the opposite side of where she gave everything she had to save one who had died. Panther looked down at his paws and watched the downpour of raindrops ripple in the blood soaked grass out upon the peak of the lone mountain in the island.

  I failed… I failed my master. Panther thought in his moment of rage. Hearing Kanade bawl as she alone tried saving someone already gone, never to return fueled his hatred toward those who had no right to take the life of a good and responsible individual. With all the celestial power weighing down the area he didn’t sense or hear the attack of his mistress’s parents till it was too late and the enemy achieved their goal.

  Red tinted the Balam’s unparalleled vision as heat from his fury shot down his spine and infused every murderous fiber his body was capable of unleashing. Extremely long claws extended in an instant from deep within corded and furry forearms. Then he looked around for those he could bring down and who made him fail in his mission for the first time in eons.

  More than nineteen large bodies of Enforcers between fifteen to sixteen feet tall with all black wings lay motionless and scattered over the ground. Eight were truly dead even in spirit form as his power is enough to kill the nigh invincible beings of Spirit World. The others his master killed, but didn’t have the necessary power or skill to destroy their ethereal forms.

  Hanging up in a tightly packed ball were nearly all the remaining attackers bound in violet rope made of magic and pressed together so tightly they couldn’t free themselves even with all their strength and power.

  But two others flew free though Panther didn’t know how they managed to escape the spell that captured everyone else whether material or ethereal. These were the two who stole the life of his master. The man wearing only golden pants flew with heavyset emerald wings and had both a sword of light and lance brandished as he stared back coolly and with unbridled contempt. The woman had demure yellow wings like the sun as she flew for the green with only a sword for she hadn’t conjured another lance with a snap of her fingers yet. Both had simple gold helmets burning with yellow and gold fire as both a cunning display and to protect the worlds of life from suffering from the power that escapes their body.

  These two were Mikhale and Valande, Kanade’s parents. They who had struck down their own child’s soul mate without a shred of remorse.

  Showing their true colors.

  Panther’s tinted glare saw Valande was pleased with herself. Whiskers twitched as his lips pulled back to show off thick, flesh ripping teeth a millisecond before he yowled “You killed my master! I’m going to fucking kill each and EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!”

  Faster than mortal eyes or ears could follow Valande said “Block him. I’ll pull the squad back to safety in the sky.” And slammed her wings down as she let a finger burst green and her eyes went yellow like her wings as she threw a mystical rope around the suspended mass of Spirit World’s elite Enforcers and flew straight up, felt a mild tug, but found the tangle of bodies following. She sighed as the unknown spell used lifted without much effort rather than be fixed to one place and left her comrades out of danger.

  But Panther’s rage would not be so easily denied as no physical form could match his speed. Mikhale was
below the lifting mass and his mind ran to see every millisecond of action, but even to his extreme sense of slowed time, Panther moved too fast to be seen. One moment General Panther was standing beside Mikhale’s suffering daughter with his claws fully extended from each finger like opaque swords and the next, the sleek onyx Balam was right in front, leaping in an instant over fourteen stories in the air. Demon Energy flared enough to split stars and was beyond any wards Mikhale had active. Five razor sharp claws tore through the barrier like air and didn’t slow as the Enforcer’s defensive weapon positioning was broken. The claws sliced through Mikhale’s dominant right arm and the claw tips cut about two inches deep in his chest. Panther’s jaws opened and sunk his four piercing teeth in the man’s shoulder, planted his catlike feet on his stomach and went to leap again to take care of the rest escaping.

  Mikhale though was also no lightweight. He knew in a one on one battle against General Panther he was beyond outclassed, but he wasn’t trying to fight. The green winged Enforcer lured the Balam and in the state he was in, the gamble paid off. Even with speed no mortal could match, Balam demons had no special abilities. They couldn’t fly or use any form of magic. Mikhale sacrificed his left arm on purpose and squeezed bulging back muscles to their absolute limit to bring his wings down, parallel to his body while using the momentum of being knocked backwards to an advantage.

  Rolling backwards through the air had Mikhale throw off General Panther’s rhythm and balance for under a hundredth of a second. Between beings at their level that was plenty to change the tide of a fight. Sunken teeth pulled out of his shoulder, leaving gaping holes an inch and a half wide behind, but in the moment his feet slipped on Mikhale’s slick abdomen from the rain, Mikhale rotated and yelled a war cry as he kicked General Panther from behind and connected at his lower back, just above the sleek tail.

  A sonic boom louder than the lightning came from the kick and as Panther was kicked far from Blue Angel Isle and far out into the Atlantic Ocean, left in his passing was a silhouette in the pouring rain. That and a yowl of outrage as he had to wait to reach water just so he could return and finish off the job.

  Mikhale stole a glance down at his daughter now screaming for Ethan to ‘Wake up’ as she beat what remained of his motionless chest. No emotion other than hatred remained. His duty was complete. He flew skyward and quickly caught up to Valande hoisting the tangled ball of Enforcers and bright violet energy. She worriedly and mentally wondered if he was alright, but he didn’t answer as they got away quickly before the general’s return.

  Panther hit the troublesome ocean at last over sixty miles away and at the speed his legs moved the surface tension of the water was plenty to let him run back at full speed. By the time he appeared back into the storm he passed by and stood on the roof of the single building that was made on Blue Angel Isle, the storm covered Mikhale and Valande’s tracks. His ears strained, but it was too late.

  The enemy went beyond his grasp.

  Claws retracted back deep into the forearms as he threw his shoulders back, lifted his barreled chest and roared like an actual jaguar, but one beyond reason other than revenge.

  Blood hammering in his ears dimmed as he took in his mistress’s sorrowful sobs of realizing it was too late and he was gone. He promised himself he would end her when she would eventually ask and then end himself for his failure so he could atone to his masters for this negligence. Until then he was going to stand and make sure the enemy didn’t desecrate the island until his mistress’s grief allowed it all to end.

  Dressor stared out in disbelief from arriving moments after he felt the barrier that protected his charge force him to return to those who he adored. The ivory knobs had twinkling eyes that would not shed tears as he stared at the heart wrenching wails of his dear girlfriend and the husk of a dear friend. All around the world where his soul occupied nearly every hall and bedroom of the Houses, he was frozen. Few times had one moment claimed every shred of his immortal attention. He was so stunned that the thousands of creatures who noticed the horrified and grieving filigree expression beat on his frame, but he would not respond. Could not respond. It didn’t matter as he had seen and heard it all from inside his second level station. Not that he had General Panther under his gaze for months. Not even news of Ethan’s heritage being revealed. He watched a good man get cut down for no good reason. His grief was as palpable as Kanade’s and Panther’s. Never in his life had he at that moment wanted to protect those he cared for this much, but again was forced to see another ending. No one could get a word out of him. No one.

  Up in the safety of the storm Valande’s body was struck harmlessly by a bolt of lightning as she let go of the conjured rope and waited for the ball to drop. It didn’t so she hurried over to her soul mate and hastily pressed the flat of her sword to his severed forearm to cauterize the wound and then the bleeding gashes on his chest. All Mikhale did to show it hurt was tense his muscles.

  “Get us out of here!” yet another Enforcer demanded.

  “Silence!” Came the commanding order from their superior. “Do you want the filth to find us by your cries for help?”

  Mikhale and Valande swooped in closer to find their clan leader one of those trapped on the outer edge. The order though instantly killed chatter among the ancient soldiers of Ifrit slaying specialists.

  Megann, Matron of the Cerulean clan managed to turn only her eyes behind the faceplate as her face and body were held immobile and sideways. Her young voice was hard as steel, but barely a whisper. “Is the abomination neutralized permanently?”

  Valande’s false cheeriness snapped to a soldier’s neutral. “Mikhale cut through his warded legs where I knew the target preferred to store his charged power. Just in the event I was mistaken I aimed for the wing one of your fighters cut off that he didn’t enchant. I chose an angle that pierced through the unprotected place on his back and destroyed his heart as well as over half his left chest and torso. The target is dead, listen to her cries of realization he is no more.” Even through the storm and lightning striking them off and on they heard a woman’s wails. “Serves her right for not bringing him in for immediate execution. Death will not allow his corrupted spirit to separate. She will make sure he dies like the Demon he is. Matron, what is your situation?”

  Megann tried moving everything, even her black wings and strained through gritted teeth “This spell is as powerful as a Black Hole. I know not this one, but never in my billions of years has a spell held me so thoroughly that I cannot even move my little toe. Any other creature would have been crushed in the spell’s core the moment it found and took hold. How are the two of you not compromised?”

  Valande and Mikhale looked to one another before looking back and he said “We held the traitor away. Either the spell targeted hostile action or he designed it to overlook us and negotiate her release.”

  “Plausible.” The raven general Enforcer surmised the logic of such a tactic. “I’ve tried casting with the tip of my tongue, but I cannot overwhelm these bonds or even contemplate a theory to bypass them. The size and way he combined the two opposing runes is beyond me. If any of you have an idea speak now.” Silence followed them.

  One towards the center of the mass said in a muffled voice due to the compressed bodies “See if you can pull or cut us out.”

  “No, do not touch.” Megann said in a neutral tone. “Use a blade. For all we know, direct contact will make it react and trap as well.”

  “Why hasn’t it died with him?” another asked as Valande carefully brought her blade closer. It’s light illuminating more as it got closer.

  “Likely his desperation gave a set amount of power to hold it.” Mikhale considered it.

  “It won’t cut.” Valande huffed, pouring energy into the blade as she sawed against lavender energy that looked close to rope in texture.

  “Then we will have to wait till the power eventually dissipates.” Not one groaned as Megann spoke. “We lost good warriors, but if he had fully
matured his power even at this level was frightening. Our king was right in sending us to end him. Valande, find a safe place to observe Kanade and end her misery too. She is too weak to do it herself. Cleanse the area and leave no trace an island ever existed here. Mikhale, maintain position to protect us and spell the area from Translocation. Your wounds need time to heal. As I dueled General Panther I saw Dress observing. Make sure to use a spell that he cannot divulge anything of what has occurred here.”

  “Ma’am!” Valande and Mikhale saluted and began to complete their assigned orders as directed by their King.

  Valande flew far away and found a patch of minimal lightning to observe from afar. Her helmet’s spells allowed her to zoom in on an area even beyond normal and she found her still crying child, but couldn’t fire upon her as Panther stood vigilant, his motions blurring as he spun around and around to detect any incoming attacks, just as was planned. The now uncaring mother bided her time, aiming her new spear straight for her prone daughter’s head from over twelve miles away. The mother had no qualms to kill her own child. None.

  Kanade cried weakly, her voice raw and bleeding. “Why? Why him? Death, please hear my plea. I know you listen even now. Please let his soul part and we will leave together for the farthest ends of reality. Please don’t take him awahayyy.” Her fists had made an indent around them as she pleaded again and again. “We never hurt anyonnneee! Death! Please give me my angel. Pleaheeezzzee.”

  The Enchantress choked in another sob, but Death didn’t give in to sorrow. All Order Transcendent beings in Spirit World were in united agreement she stay her hand, not that she would comply anyway. Kanade’s pleas went unanswered and uncaring of her broken hearted plight.

  Fear of the unknown being with both Spirit and Demon Energy coming to maturity didn’t allow any leeway within the laws of Spirit World ruled and reigned over by Armid the Spirit King.

  Panther’s dizzying scan all around started to pick up something strange after minutes when his rapidly moving mind began to consciously listen for it. It originally sounded low, muted like thick molasses moving in snow within his mind. It made a ‘suck’ ‘slurp’ sound and a piece of his own mind was slowed intentionally to rest, the equivalent of an average human athlete. Powerful hearing perked soft round ears atop his feline skull and swiveled while the rest of his attention and movements were on the enemy lookout he knew was coming. Heightened demonic and animalistic instincts never failed him. And right now he still felt malice slightly less profound than his.