The Nextworld Invasion and the Death of Magic - 23. Chapter 23 - Vortex

Othri and Lestralin were with Verilin, Edonish, and the rest of the rebels on Ashtrilth Island.

“You really don’t have any kind of plan to fight back?” Othri asked. He looked around at the group of gathered rebels, but most shrugged or shook their heads. “Far to the north,” he went on, “there were a group of shadow warriors who were planning something secret. I think they had figured out some way to attack the Humans.”

“We’ve mostly been trying to hide and find survivors,” Verilin replied.

“Well if Dorjin was right,” Lestralin added, “and the Humans are actively hunting for where you’re hiding here, then you probably can’t stay on Ashtrilth Island much longer.”

As if in response to Lestralin’s words, black flashes of lightning suddenly darkened the sky, and a huge hole opened above the island.

“Oh no…” Othri whispered. “The Humans have found us!”

From the chasm in the barrier between Nextworld and Earth poured a swarm of insectoidal vessels that began raining fire.

“Flee!” someone shouted, and rebels darted in every direction, but there were very few places to run or hide on the small island.

The Humans’ ships split into separate squadrons, focusing their attacks on multiple fronts, but something strange happened to the sky behind them. The gaping maw that led from Nextworld into Earth started to rotate, and a black vortex like a whirlpool of darkness began exerting a powerful force against the divebombing shuttles. The pull not only caused the ships to slow in their descent, but it also seemed to completely deactivate them. What had started as a coordinated assault by the Humans was spiraling into chaos.

On the island below, the rebels were very surprised by what they were witnessing. The attack against them had ended as quickly as it started. The insect-like shuttles were no longer firing, and they slowed until they came to a hover in midair before being drawn backward toward the swirling hole of darkness.

The rebels could not make sense of what was happening, and they began to deal with the few fires that had been started by the Humans on the island. Only a single ship in the harbor was burning, and other rebels were already in the process of dousing the flames.

“For a second there,” Lestralin whispered to Othri, “I thought we were done for…”

The pair grabbed buckets to help gather water from the ocean to douse the fires.

“What’s going on up there?” Lestralin added as he filled a bucket of seawater, and he turned his gaze skyward.

Like toys floating in a bathtub after its plug has been released, the insectoidal ships began bumping into each other as they were sucked back up toward the spiraling hole in the barrier between worlds. Some of the sky-ships collided with each other hard enough to break off exterior pieces, but nothing fell to Earth, and everything that had come through the portal a moment earlier was being dragged back from whence it came. The energy above was growing stronger, and two ships smashed into each other with enough force that one exploded and sent the other hurtling away from the pull of the dark vortex. The burning vessel plummeted straight down toward the island below.

“Scatter!” a rebel ordered.

Everyone ran. No one could tell where the shuttle was going to land in the aimless confusion. Some rebels hid in a tiny cave within the side of the volcano; others hoped they would be safer closer to the water, and a few disappeared into the trees.

Lestralin spotted a way out that he did not realize was still there. “The portal!”

Dorjin’s eldritch doorway, which led to the beach where her slaughtered crab’s remains still lay, was open.

“Everyone,” Lestralin bellowed, “through here!”

He was the first to rush in, and when Othri saw him standing safely on the other side, he quickly followed.

“Get in here!” Lestralin urged, and many rebels joined them on the other beach.

The locals immediately knew where they were. The portal’s other side was in view of the most recent site of Human destruction. Springdale was no longer in flames from the attack six days earlier, but smoke was still rising from the cinders of the city.

“No,” breathed Edonish, “our home.”

The devastation was horrible.

“I’m so sorry,” Lestralin whispered.

On the Ashtrilth Island-side of the portal, the falling shuttle hit the hardened lava flows and exploded. The shockwave was powerful enough that it blasted through Dorjin’s mystical doorway, and several rebels were knocked to the sand. No one was injured, but the wreckage now blocked the door’s other side, and the rebels who had escaped to the mainland had no way of knowing what was happening on the island.

“What now?” Othri asked, helping a couple of the rebels to their feet.

“We can’t get back to Ashtrilth,” Edonish stated.

His fellow leader, Verilin, was staring at the ruined city. Edonish stepped up beside him.

“There are so few of us left,” Verilin said in a low voice full of sadness. “This invasion by the Humans isn’t a war; it’s a genocide. We don’t stand a chance, and only a fraction of the free peoples still exist.”

Othri took a pained breath at the horrible but truthful words. He stared out to sea along the chain of islands that stretched beyond the horizon, and he whispered his beloved’s name. “Tigath.”

*

Right before the hideous hole above Ashtrilth Island was opened by the Humans, Tigath had been with Nuji, Alydrael, Kilial, and Dorjin on the deck of the Mermonster. Dorjin had just mentioned having an idea of how to retaliate against her own people, when the black lightning began to streak across the sky. She was the first to notice it.

“No,” she breathed, pointing toward the darkening hole in reality, “Kalthrin has found the rebels!”

The others looked up in horror as the barrier between Nextworld and Earth opened, and the insectoidal ships swarmed through and attacked. Everyone aboard the Mermonster jumped to their feet, and the ship made a ruckus with its sails, ropes, and riggings.

“Mermonster, full canvas!” Kilial ordered, and she rushed to the wheel.

Tigath, Alydrael, and Dorjin reacted simultaneously. Alydrael grabbed Nuji’s arm and pulled her close as Dorjin asked the world at large, “Did the Humans find the rebels because I came here?” and Tigath whispered Othri’s name, before wailing “No!” and he collapsed into unconsciousness.

Kilial turned toward him in time to see his body hit the deck of the ship.

“What happened to…” Kilial did not finish her thought.

The portal in the sky above the island was spiraling, and the assault against the rebels was disrupted. The Humans ceased firing, and their ships began to move backward in the air toward the twisting hole, jostling each other and breaking apart.

“What is going on?” Dorjin breathed to no one.

Nuji pulled away from Alydrael and knelt beside Tigath with her long skinny legs bent out to the sides like a frog. “This happened before,” she stated. “Tigath, are you alright?” She brushed his long purple hair back from his face and gently slapped his cheek.

The vehicle explode, which sent the other ship plummeting toward the island below. The thing crashed with terrible devastation.

“Is this my fault,” Dorjin whispered, “because I used magic?”

“Or did the Humans track me?” Nuji countered, looking up from beside Tigath. “I have a very strong connection to my people’s magic.”

“Or,” Kilial added, tapping her foot, “were they somehow able to home in on the Mermonster? Maybe trying to find the rebels was the wrong course of action.”

Tigath groaned and the others turned to him. “W’happened t’me?” he mumbled.

“You passed out again,” the limby captain replied. “Let’s get you up.”

She and Nuji helped him to his feet, but Nuji was scrutinizing the green-skinned man, and she said nothing.

Tigath looked out from the Mermonster and first noticed that the island was on fire, before realizing the attack by the Humans was no longer happening, and he focused on the sky. The shuttles were in pieces, churning together in a roiling mass of twisted metal and shredded chunks of unnatural flesh.

Then the portal through reality snapped shut with the Humans back in Nextworld, and the bright blue sky was empty again. The debris of the single crashed vessel was all that remained.

“We need to go to the island!” Tigath shouted. “We need to see if Othri’s okay!”

Less than five minutes later, the Mermonster had positioned itself very close to the edge of the hardened lava flows. The wreckage was before them. Besides the few rebels who were trying to get the burning ship in the harbor under control, there was no sign of anyone.

“Mermonster,” Kilial said quietly, “take us a little way around the island.”

Tigath began rubbing the back of his neck, and he pulled his hair up into a bun.

The mystical ship began to head safely despite the underwater protuberances that would have sunk boats piloted by even the most skilled captains. Kilial was letting the Mermonster have complete control as it maneuvered along the coast.

“There’s someone!” Dorjin yelled, pointing along the rocky shore.

“Ahoy!” Kilial bellowed, and she waved.

It was a Rothian man. He managed a half-wave back, and as the Mermonster approached, everyone saw the reason for the weak gesture. He was injured, and he was clutching one arm with his opposite hand.

“Are you alright?!” Kilial shouted as they approached.

“I’m fine!” he replied. “My arm is hurt, but it’s not bad.”

“Is Othri with you?” Tigath called out.

The man shook his head. “He and a bunch of people escaped through the portal opened by that Human, but we can’t get to it! The bug-ship crashed right on it.”

“He’s safe,” Tigath whispered, and he turned to Dorjin. “Where did your doorway lead? Where’s that beach?”

Dorjin did not know the geography of Earth, and even though she had brought a map, she had no idea where her ship had crashed. “I don’t know. Oh, but I was part of the assault on… I don’t know what you call it, the harbor city. I could see it in the distance from where I was.”

Tigath grabbed Kilial’s hand. “Will you have the Mermonster bring us to the coast, please? I need to find Othri.”

“Of course,” she replied. She turned to the island again and hollered, “Do you need any assistance from us?”

“No, there are a few of us still on the island, but we’re going to make our way around to the ships in the harbor!”

“Good luck!” Kilial concluded, and she looked at the Mermonster’s wheel. “Take us out safely. Get into open water, and we’ll head toward land.”

The ship groaned beneath everyone’s feet, and it turned away from the island.

Nuji took Tigath’s hand and pulled him aside. “Something’s going on with you,” she said quietly. “We still don’t know what’s happening, but if there are earthmagicks activating to fight back against the Humans, why does it keep causing you to faint? Glad you woke up quicker this time,” she added.

Tigath squinted his purple eyes at her. “Nuji, you’re not saying I’m somehow connected to the magic, are you?”

She shook her head. “No, that’s not possible, but for some reason, it’s affecting you.”

“Do you have a guess what that might mean?”

Nuji glanced at Alydrael, Kilial, and Dorjin. “I don’t, but I want to figure it out. I don’t know how to though.”

The Mermonster arrived at the mainland under the cover of darkness. The shore was sandy but desolate, and the forest beyond the beach did not look inviting.

“Take us away from the destruction,” Kilial said to the ship.

The Mermonster sailed along the coast for over an hour, but there was no sign of anyone.

“Where are you, Othri?” Tigath whispered out over the dark waves.

“I guess…” Dorjin began. “Maybe my shuttle came down closer to the city.”

“Turn us around,” Kilial ordered, and the Mermonster’s bow pointed out to sea and then back in the direction it had just traveled. “Go slow,” Kilial urged.

After another hour, the ship was back at the spot on the coast where it had first arrived, and it headed nearer and nearer to the ruins of Springdale.

“Wait, Mermonster!” Tigath gasped. He had spotted movement among the trees. “There they are!”

A large group of rebels emerged from the forest. Othri and Lestralin were among them.

Tigath did not know why he suddenly began to sob, but the sight of his beloved was all it took. He stared at Othri as tears streamed down from his purple eyes. The rainbowy creature scurried over and rubbed his side against Tigath’s shin, and he looked down at it. “Othri’s okay, Illiop.” Tigath knelt and scratched the animal behind its ear.

The Mermonster got as close to shore as possible, and Kilial climbed into the dinghy and rowed it to shore. The rebels squeezed onto the tiny boat, and soon they were all aboard the Mermonster.

Tigath wrapped his arms around Othri, and the two men hugged in silence.

Hours later but still before sunrise, the Mermonster made it back to Ashtrilth Island and dropped off the rebels again.

Kilial and the rest of the group onboard were exhausted, and she brought her hands to the ship’s wheel. “Mermonster, just take us out to sea. Get us away from anywhere that the Humans might go.”

It creaked, adjusted its sails and rudder, and pointed its front out at the horizon.

Dorjin then spoke up to Tigath, Othri, Nuji, Alydrael, Kilial, and Lestralin, but she had to force the words out. “I… I have… an idea.”