The Nextworld Invasion and the Death of Magic - 39. Chapter 39 - Reunion and Loss

Uall Island flashed to the final location where Othri could feel a magical Urcai, but when the island and ship arrived with everyone, there was no sign of any Earthians. There was no devastation from the Humans, no ruined city, no scorched patch of Earth, but there was also no one in the vicinity. The island still appeared like a mountain, and the area in which it now stood was hilly, so Uall was well hidden. It was supporting the Mermonster with its magic, but the ship looked very strange in the hills without a sea in sight. Trees dotted the rolling and grassy landscape, and there seemed to be many places to hide, but there was no indication of anything except the surrounding nature.

Othri focused in one direction. “They’re there.” He pointed off the stern of the ship.

“Should we get down and walk?” Tigath suggested.

The pair of them left the others and climbed down the Mermonster’s rope ladder to the ground beneath. Tigath and Othri walked in silence, but Othri soon stopped.

“They’re here,” he stated, glancing around in confusion. “They’re here somewhere.” He knelt, brought a palm to the Earth, and looked surprised. “They’re underground!”

“Huh,” Tigath replied, “how do you suppose we find them?”

Othri stood, staring at the earth beneath the pair’s feet. “No idea.”

They did not need to do anything to figure out the conundrum, because the hill to one side of them began to tremble, and its stone and earth began to churn, vibrating and twisting back and forth like a clock in confusion. The pair watched in wonder as the face of the hill opened like a mystical mouth, and a cave was revealed.

A single Urcai man stepped out into the sunshine. “You survived?!” he rasped out, and he collapsed to his knees in tears.

Tigath and Othri did not know specifically what horrible thing he meant, but they suspected his home had been destroyed by the Humans, and they approached him. They crouched and each placed a hand on his shoulders.

The man looked up through his tears. “I thought I was the only one left. I’ve been alone for over two weeks, and s-s-s-somehow,” he stuttered, “I can do magic!” He looked back at the opening in the hillside.

Tigath and Othri’s hearts sank at the revelation that they would only be saving a single Earthian from the location they had magically come to, but even one more was worth it.

“What’s your name, and where are you from?” Tigath asked.

“I’m Bolint, from Koptopi City. Are you two not from there as well?”

“No,” Othri replied, “our city was destroyed by the Humans too.”

“We’ve found a way for our people to survive,” Tigath added, and the men explained to Bolint about the island and the portal to Nextworld.

A few minutes later, the lone Urcai joined the other Earthians at the refugee camp, and Tigath and Othri climbed back onto the Mermonster.

“Now what?” Kilial asked the group. “Any ideas on how we’re supposed to find any others of the free peoples?”

No one had any recommendations, but then Dorjin spoke up, “Do you think the Mermonster or Uall Island might have a way to find others of your people?”

“Worth a try,” Kilial replied with a nod.

Tigath also liked the idea, and as he approached the railing of the ship, the Mermonster spoke in its special language that only the magical Urcai could understand. Everyone aboard the ship fell into rapt silence as pullies screeched, ropes snapped, riggings rattled, the mast creaked, and the deck groaned. Then everything went silent. There were only the sounds of nature.

Alydrael could not hold in her excitement or curiosity. “What did it say?”

“The Mermonster was explaining… to the island!” Tigath replied in quiet wonder. “It told me to wait while the island replies.”

“The island is communicating with the Mermonster?!” Kilial squawked, but Tigath put up his hand as he listened.

“I don’t hear anything,” Alydrael commented.

Tigath did not say anything else for several minutes.

Eventually, the railing under his hands let out a small moan, and Tigath gasped. He staggered away as the railing continued its quiet sounds. Tigath brought his fingers back to it and said at barely a breath, “That can’t be true.”

The Mermonster fell silent.

Alydrael could not help but to ask what the others were thinking. “What did it say? What can’t be true?”

Tigath hesitated. “The island can feel us. It knows how many of the free peoples are left, and it knows where they are, but it can’t bring us to them all. Since the exodus from Nextworld, the Humans have systematically been executing the prisoners they had taken in our cities.” He took a shuddering breath. “Over the past twenty-four hours, our people have been wiped out in countless cities around the world. There are only…” Tigath’s voice faltered. He steadied himself. “There are only twenty-three places where our peoples are alive on the entire planet. Uall can feel our number actively decreasing, and soon, we will be no more.”

Without warning, Uall Island flashed the world away, and it suddenly returned to the rugged coastline it liked to call home.

The Mermonster groaned, and Tigath translated.

“Humans appeared on the horizon where we found Bolint, and Uall brought us back to the safety of this secluded sea.”

Othri focused on the subject of the remaining Urcai, Rothians, and Noktar around the world. “What about our peoples? They’re being exterminated like vermin.”

The Mermonster let out another small sound.

“Now there are only twenty-two places where we still exist,” Tigath translated quietly.

Everyone fell into solemn silence.

The Urcai, Rothians, and Noktar species were being pushed toward the brink of extinction.

“We won’t survive much longer,” Tigath stated.

The Mermonster’s mast made a noise that was quickly followed by a rope snapping.

“Two more locations,” Tigath translated.

The sounds of nature continued their peaceful symphony, as the free peoples around the world were annihilated.

Alydrael began to cry, and Dorjin embraced her. She also started to weep, and the sad sounds of the Mermonster continued counting down.

“Another city…” Tigath whispered.

A moment passed, and the deck creaked.

“Another…”

“Only seventeen places left?” Othri whispered, but a pulley squeaked.

Tigath groaned. “Now sixt…”

He was interrupted by the Mermonster.

“Fifteen,” he said miserably.

Over the course of an hour, the countdown of slaughter continued until there were only two places left on the entire Earth where Urcai, Rothians, or Noktar were alive, and Uall Island could feel that their numbers were still dropping.

Soon, there was only one place left.

“Is there really nothing we can do?!” Othri shouted to no one. He looked out at the island, and even though he could not understand it or the ship, he yelled, “Can’t you just take us to the last place so we can kill the Humans and save at least a few more of our people?”

The Mermonster’s mast moaned.

Othri, Nuji, Alydrael, Kilial, Lestralin, and Dorjin looked at Tigath, who said, “Yes, it can.”

“Then why did it wait until the people in all those other cities were killed?!” Othri barked.

Tigath sighed. “Uall is going to sacrifice itself to save the last of us. It’s going to bring us there to rescue our people, and the island will die.”

The others did not respond, but the Mermonster made another noise to Tigath.

“I will,” he replied.

Dorjin asked Alydrael’s question before she could get it out. “What did it say?”

“It told me Uall said to kill the Humans.”

“What about the ship?” Kilial asked, and the Mermonster replied to her in its normal voice that she could understand. Its words took her breath away and made Nuji gasp. “No,” Kilial whispered, “you can’t.”

Nuji stepped up beside the captain and asked the ship, “You would do that for our people?”

Alydrael was dying to ask what the Mermonster was saying, but she held her tongue as the two Rothian women talked with it.

“I can’t let you,” Kilial insisted.

Nuji interlaced her long, spidery fingers with Kilial’s.

“It’s going to die a hero.”

Alydrael could not hold it in anymore. “Die? What do you mean die? Who’s going to die? Not the Mermonster!”

Kilial let out a roar of frustration and sorrow. “Don’t do this! You don’t need to, we can stay here, or even just you could stay here and hide while we go rescue the last of our people, but please don’t do this, my love.” Kilial had only called the ship her term of endearment a few times with the others around, and her voice was full of sadness. “Maybe Tigath can make a portal wide enough that you could sail through into the oceans of Nextworld, but don’t do this. Please Mermonster, don’t do this.”

It made comforting noises with its rigging and pullies. Creaking ropes soothed, and the wood of the ship expressed its love for the Rothian captain who had piloted it for so many years. Kilial began to cry as the Mermonster explained that it was happy and at peace to have found the landmass that was once home to the trees that made up its wood. It told her that by sacrificing themselves, the island and the ship would help to save the last of the peoples of Earth, and eventually, Kilial conceded to the honorable end.

The Mermonster let out one extra squeak that made Kilial cry all the harder.

Nuji stepped up to Alydrael and quietly informed her and the others, “The ship said to Kilial, ‘I’m doing this for you.’”

When Kilial eventually calmed down, and after she had told her ship she loved it many times, she asked, “How do we do this? What do we do? Does Uall know where we’re going? Because I’m ready to kill some Humans!”

The Mermonster let out a series of noises, and Kilial translated.

The group followed its instructions, and the world flashed away with the magic of Uall Island. Everything became dark as they entered the night-side of the planet, and when the island came to a stop, chaos erupted! The entire landmass of Uall had appeared in the air, hovering above a dark city where a barracks with a massive contingent of Human soldiers was now living.

Gravity did its work.

Uall Island came crashing down with the power of multiple avalanches compounding each other, and the building beneath was utterly crushed, but battalions of troops were still in the streets of their stolen home. They found themselves assaulted by magical missiles as the Mermonster destroyed itself with a glorious explosion of wooden shrapnel that tore through the soldiers. The ship had preserved a very small portion of itself, splintering every other piece of its wood outward and eviscerating the enemies of the free peoples.

Tigath, Othri, Nuji, Alydrael, Kilial, Lestralin, and Dorjin were hiding in the single remaining room of the ship, the captain’s chamber. The Mermonster had protected its final passengers. Its assault had also cleared a path for them to make it to the prison camp where the remaining Urcai, Rothians, and Noktar were being kept and killed. Kilial was trying to hold in her emotions. She was brokenhearted at the loss of the Mermonster, but she was in the middle of the Human-occupied city, and she could not spare a moment for sorrow.

The cabin door swung open, and Tigath stepped into the dark city with his arms raised. He reached out with the Earth’s magic and ripped the blood from the bodies of the Humans who were still living after the attacks by Uall Island and the Mermonster.

“Let’s get the prisoners out of here!” he ordered, and Othri, Nuji, Lestralin, and finally Kilial came racing out of the remains of the Mermonster.

As the captain passed the doorframe, the hinge let out a quiet creak that meant I love you.

Kilial reached out and stroked the wood of the door, and she was off with the others.

Tigath led the group over the Human corpses, and the prison camp was in front of them. The free peoples being held inside were each at the bars of their cells, staring out at the destruction and death.

“We’re here to get you out!” Othri declared. “Step away from the fences!”

Tigath told the Earth’s magic to open the prison camp, and the bars that penned the Earthians in like animals were sucked into the ground. The prisoners were weak, but they stepped free from where they had been held.

“Follow us!” Lestralin encouraged. “We have a way to get you all out of here!”

A contingent of soldiers appeared between the free peoples and the remains of Uall Island, but Tigath reached forward and pulled their blood from them, causing a dense but brief cloud of red to form that quickly disappeared.

As the survivors approached the crumbling remains of Uall Island, it revealed where the portal was still hidden.

“Everyone, through here!” Tigath cried.

To Kilial’s shock, she saw someone she knew well but was not expecting. “Ursine!” She ran up to the man she loved, who she had accepted as dead. “Ursine Eighth Light!” Kilial wrapped her long arms around him. The two fell into sobs as they held each other.

None of the others had ever met Kilial’s lover, but to see their friend’s joy made all the struggles even more worth the effort it had taken to get there.

Kilial and Ursine rushed through the portal with the freed prisoners.

Tigath and Othri stood with Nuji on the Earth-side of the opening through reality, while Lestralin was with Kilial and Ursine on its opposite, and they all encouraged the prisoners toward their salvation. They did not inform anyone that the opening led into Nextworld; they did not want the Humans to find out where their remnant was hidden.

More soldiers appeared, but not in a group. Two popped out of an alleyway as another stepped around the corner of a building, and a fourth came rushing out of a doorway. Tigath reached for them, and the Earth opened a hole beneath one soldier as the limbs of a tree that had not been burned by the Humans grabbed and crushed another. The two who were together succumbed in unison to Tigath yanking the blood out of their bodies, but another, and another, and another appeared. He continued to fight them with the Earth’s magic, but they kept coming.

The Humans began swarming from every direction, and Tigath did his best to fight back, but right as the final Earthian prisoner stepped through the portal into Nextworld, Nuji spotted a soldier peek out of an upper window in a building. He aimed his voider at Tigath.

“Nooo,” Nuji screamed, “Tigath!” and she dove into him, knocking him to the earth and protecting him from the blast of blue power. The energy hit Nuji in the side of her chest and shoulder, removing a portion of her upper torso and taking off her entire arm. She fell to the dirt.

“Uall Island,” Tigath shouted, “get us out of here!”

The world flashed away, and a moment later, a chunk of the island appeared at the rugged coastline that it called home, but it was not in the water. Uall Island was on land, high on the rocky cliffs above the sea. The island was now little more than a large pile of dirt and stone with a single broken ocria tree, barely clinging to it for dear life, but the last room from the Mermonster and the portal between worlds were safe.

Tigath dropped to his knees and grabbed Nuji’s remaining long-fingered hand. “No, Nuji.”

Her eyes were wide with shock. “I couldn’t… let that Hu…” Her voice faltered. “He almost shot…”

“Don’t talk, Nuji,” Tigath said gently.

The others gathered around her broken body.

“Nuji, you’re the best of us,” Tigath stated in a trembling voice as his eyes filled with tears. “You saved us time and time again. Nuji, you saved us, and you don’t have to hang on…” Tears streamed down his cheeks. “You can let go, but just know that you are loved, and you have a family. We love you, Nuji.”

Surrounded by the people in the world who she had come to love as well, Nuji died.