War Of The Four Worlds Read online

  Calal fought unconsciousness as pain suffused his body and gripped his shoulder, murmuring a healing spell. The Purifier wasn’t the only one who could regenerate.

  Lightning crashed into the monster, then acid. The surviving guardsmen were counterattacking.

  Some of the attacks did nothing, but others forced the monster back and wounded it, only for its regeneration to continue. Always, the next similar attack accomplishing nothing.

  Roaring, and with his arm regenerated, the Purifier swept the area with twin beams of death. His appendages continued their staccato spitting of the green bolts. They burned deep into any unprotected Oriceran they encountered.

  The roof of a nearby building collapsed, and several people inside screamed as the heavy stone crushed them.

  Calal staggered to his feet, not bothering with his sword. He shoved his hands forward and began chanting a complicated paralysis spell. They didn’t need to kill the Purifier. If they could disable him, they could get more reinforcements and figure out some way to handle the creature. All beings had a weakness.

  The Purifier’s back was turned to the elf as the creature mowed down the newest guardsmen arrivals, their defenses not protecting them from his beams.

  Bodies littered the ground, and smoke poured from the burning buildings.

  Calal finished the spell, and a glowing glyph appeared on the back of the Purifier.

  “That should hold you, monster,” Calal spat.

  The glyph disappeared, and the monster let out a growl. He advanced, and this time massive lines of juddering energy appeared on his blades. The Purifier’s shoulder appendages stopped firing, and the tips grew brighter.

  Calal swallowed. “Can nothing stop you?” He hurled an ice lance, a fireball, and blasts of pure light magic at the Purifier. Each spell landed, but the creature didn’t seem to notice or care.

  The green light grew blinding, and Calal shielded his eyes.

  A massive green blast exploded from the Purifier and smashed into a nearby crystal tower, obliterating the structure and some of the smaller wooden buildings nearby. The shockwave knocked Calal flat on his back.

  The elf groaned and craned his neck up. A massive cloud of crystal shards spread across the sky and rained down in the following moments.

  Calal sat up in time for the Purifier’s next major attack, which blew away several smaller buildings in one blast. Not a single undamaged building remained standing in the area. He didn’t bother to survey the bodies.

  Somehow cruel fate had left him alive against an unstoppable monster. He stared, his breathing shallow, his mind refusing to offer any useful tactics. He did nothing as Vax beams and blasts ravaged the area.

  The Purifier advanced toward the town. All the carnage and destruction so far had been limited to the edge.

  Calal fell to his knees and began chanting a new spell. If he couldn’t stop the Purifier, he had to save everyone.

  The Purifier halted his advance and slowly turned around. The elf continued casting his spell as the monster raised his arms and charged a beam attack.

  Magic filled the air. As Calal spoke, his amplified voice shouted from above, as if a god were speaking to the town. “Flee! Run! Evacuate! The smoke isn’t a normal fire. An unknown monster immune to magical attacks has slain the guard. You can’t win against this monster, regardless of your power.”

  The last thing Calal saw was the bright green blast of the Purifier’s beam before it incinerated him.

  Chapter Five

  Senator Johnston settled into the comfortable high-backed chair at the long table. The President and Vice-President were absent, but the National Security Advisor and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff weren’t.

  He wasn’t sure what was going on, only that he’d been ordered to come to the White House for a matter of “significant interplanetary concern.” The newest Oriceran Ambassador to the United States, an elegant female elf with dark hair named Yona, sat near the front of the table, her lips pursed and anger all but visibly radiating off her.

  Senator Johnston felt bad for the woman. She’d only been on the job for a few months, and the complexities of Earth-Oriceran relations would make any being faint from stress. Even if they had been watching—and in some cases manipulating—humans for millennia, Oricerans didn’t always understand them.

  It was rare that Senator Johnston was not clear what was going on, and the presence of Ambassador Yona suggested the issue wasn’t focused on non-Oriceran aliens. Between the Alliance and Fortis, things had gotten unnecessarily complicated in the last year. He preferred it when the CIA and a few other black ops groups were grabbing the spare alien or artifact.

  The National Security Advisor cleared his throat as a few more officials filtered into the room. “Thank you for joining us. We’d like to get started. I’ll skip the bullshit and make it clear what made us call this meeting.” He nodded at the elf. “Ambassador Yona contacted us to let us know there was a brutal assault yesterday on a small town on Oriceran. The single perpetrator laid waste to the town and murdered hundreds of people despite the presence of trained Light Elf guards. The Light Elves have reason at this time to believe the culprit was not of Oriceran origin, and may have launched his attack from a base in the United States. If that’s the case, we’ll have to treat this as a major terrorist incident and do our best to aid the Oriceran authorities in the apprehension and/or elimination of this terrorist.”

  Everyone at the table tensed. Even though the nations of Earth weren’t formal signatories to the Oriceran Great Treaty, most, including the US, had signed various other treaties. A massive attack like the one just described could easily push Oriceran into war against an Earth nation, a situation that no one on either side wanted. Senator Johnston knew what the US would do if some fresh-out-of-the-portal Oriceran strolled into a random town and slaughtered hundreds of people.

  Ambassador Yona raised her hand, and musical notes filled the air. A moment later a shimmering image appeared, the point of view of someone confronting a figure in chillingly familiar biomechanical armor. “These are the last moments of one of the Light Elf guards killed in the town of Alazi. The elf’s name was Calal.”

  “Vax?” came a voice from the image. “I know that name, but from where?”

  The magical footage ended with the death of Calal.

  Ambassador Yona waved her hand, and the image disappeared. “This evidence is clear. There’s only one being who uses such armor. We’ve tracked the activities of James Brownstone in the past. We know he traveled to Oriceran and engaged in a battle with the Drow Queen, but because the Drow didn’t lodge a complaint, we let that slide. This is beyond unacceptable, however.”

  Her hands curled into fists. “We don’t care what you think of this man or how useful he is, we will not allow him to slaughter entire towns. If you attempt to shield him, it will be a violation of existing treaties and a potential act of war. We demand justice, and we will seek it.” She slammed a fist on the table. “His level of danger far exceeds even sending him to Trevilsom, and we intend to bring together a group to hunt him and send him to the World in Between.”

  “And where is the killer now?” Senator Johnston asked.

  “After the destruction of the town, the murderer continued marching in a southwesterly direction. Currently, we’re watching him from afar while we evaluate our options. It’s unclear to us what his destination or goal is, since he’s come close to another town and several villages but hasn’t attacked them.”

  When the magical movie had begun, Senator Johnston’s heart had started pounding so much he thought he was going to have a heart attack right there in the conference room, but as the carnage unfolded, calm resignation set in.

  The politician had two problems to handle, most likely soon to be three, but at least one of them he could handle immediately without much effort. He still would have to tread lightly, because even though he had been in politics for decades, the woman sitting across the table from
him was likely older than the United States.

  “If James Brownstone killed a bunch of Oricerans, and if we were shielding him,” Senator Johnston began, “then everything you said would be true, and we would offer our full cooperation. But that creature isn’t James Brownstone.”

  Ambassador Yona scoffed. “If it’s not him, then who is it? You saw through the eyes of a man there, and you heard that it was a Vax.”

  Senator Johnston summoned his best magic: a disarming smile. “You mentioned tracking James Brownstone, but I doubt you track him like we do. You said this attack was yesterday, and you said he’s still on Oriceran?”

  “Yes. So? What of it?”

  “James Brownstone is currently in Los Angeles, and he hasn’t left Los Angeles for several weeks. We could go visit him right now if you wanted. He’s at home.”

  Uncertainty passed over the ambassador’s face. “What are you saying?”

  Senator Johnston let out a long sigh and glanced at the National Security Advisor and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “I’m saying we’ve got a different nightmare scenario. I’m saying that one of Brownstone’s people, a Vax, has finally shown up. One of the boogeymen of the galaxy is now on Oriceran, and from the show he just put on, apparently being tough doesn’t just apply to James Brownstone.”

  The faces of half the people in the room tightened. Some of them swallowed.

  Ah, you all were hoping, weren’t you? Hoping it was Brownstone, and we could just agree to drop a nuke on him.

  The National Security Advisor turned to Ambassador Yona. “The US government is willing to commit assets to aid in defense of Oriceran against this hostile extra-terrestrial threat.”

  “Assets?” the elf replied. “What assets? We’ve already sent a second group after him who used even more powerful magic than the first time, and they barely hurt him before being killed. You saw what happened as well. A limb shorn, and regenerated a short while later.”

  “We don’t know how our aircraft will perform on Oriceran,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs explained. “But I’m willing to bet that bastard might not bounce back so easily if we dropped a few JDAMs on him.”

  Ambassador Yona frowned, not understanding the military jargon.

  “Lots of bombs, basically,” Senator Johnston explained. “But unfortunately, General, I actually doubt that would work.”

  The other man looked at him with a frown. “You do?”

  Senator Johnston nodded. “Everything we know about these Vax suggests they adapt quickly to attack types. James Brownstone was a child when he came to Earth. It might very well be that the older Vax have a stronger baseline of defense. After all, it’d be foolish to send out your soldiers to worlds with advanced technology if all it took was one good bomb hit. I think we have to assume at this point that all non-nuclear conventional weapons will be ineffective against an armored Vax.”

  “You’re suggesting this new arrival is, what…the Vax equivalent of Special Forces?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

  The general snorted. “We saw him get hurt. He’s not immortal.”

  Senator Johnston shook his head. “Because magic doesn’t seem to be anywhere else in the galaxy but Earth and Oriceran, but our boy just received a crash course in it. For all we know, his symbiont might be able to adapt even faster than Brownstone’s.”

  The National Security Advisor pinched the bridge of his nose. “What about the delivery of a nuclear device? Even if we can’t trust getting a plane over there, we could send a briefcase nuke over with a few soldiers. Have them arm up, and get the Oricerans to teleport them away after they prime the device.”

  “Absolutely not,” Ambassador Yona replied, her face tight with rage. “A nuclear weapon risks breaking the Great Treaty.”

  “It’s not, strictly speaking, strategic-level magic.”

  “It’s the same level of damage.”

  Senator Johnston smiled. “I’d offer a suggestion, Madame Ambassador. We have one asset who is far more likely to be able to defeat the Vax: James Brownstone. Since he’s not the one stirring up trouble, he might be useful to end it. We can’t order him over there, but I know enough about him that if we tap him on the shoulder and let him know a Vax is in town, he’ll want to come and give the new guy a little California hello.”

  Ambassador Yona sighed and shook her head. “That’s an even worse idea. We don’t have the trust in James Brownstone that you do.”

  “So I’ve noticed.”

  “In addition, even if we presume that he would handle the Vax, he is still a dangerous man who has interfered with the sovereign ruling line of at least one Oriceran race.” Ambassador Yona raised her hand and whispered, a soft melody emerging. The image of a Drow with stark white hair and jet-black skin appeared. “If he returns, who knows who might begin to worry? Or how they’ll react?”

  Senator Johnston nodded toward the Drow. “My understanding is that the Drow don’t hold that against him. They’re the ones who chose to depose their queen. Brownstone was just a tool for that.”

  Ambassador Yona gave him a condescending look. “You don’t understand the delicate balance on Oriceran. The Great Treaty and other lesser treaties bind everything together well enough that we’ve managed to avoid the same perpetual warfare that has plagued your planet for the last ten thousand years. The initial opening of the gates has already rendered things unstable. Every additional element of complexity risks damaging that careful balance.”

  She shook her head. “No James Brownstone.” She took a deep breath. “But it doesn’t matter. We didn’t come to ask for your help. We came to make it clear we were going to use everything short of strategic-level magic to stop him. Even if we’ve had some failures, we have a few other options still available. I shall keep you abreast of the situation. With any luck, this unpleasantness will soon be behind us.”

  “I hope that’s true, Madame Ambassador, but unfortunately, I don’t think it will be,” Senator Johnston replied. He leaned back and shook his head.

  The Oricerans might not want James Brownstone involved, but the senator had long since assumed the bounty hunter would have to be. It wouldn’t be long, he suspected, before he would have to go have a little chat with the man.

  Brownstone’s the easy part. That Shepherd bastard always seems to know what’s going on. He’s going to knock on my door soon, and probably ask if he can sneak a nuke of his own over to Oriceran. Earth, Oriceran, Vax, and the Alliance: four different players. Let’s just see if we can get through the next few days without an interdimensional and intergalactic war starting.

  Chapter Six

  James smiled as he stepped into the Leanan Sidhe. The main bar was in a slightly different location, and the new tables were a slightly different color, but someone who hadn’t visited it before wouldn’t have known it had been half-destroyed in a battle only a few months ago.

  Fucking Fortis. You should have just left well enough alone. If you had, you would still be alive.

  The thick crowd also proved that no one present worried about any danger. Even though the official cover story was that James had taken on cartel assassins rather than government agents, he had worried that business would drop off. Most people, he presumed, wouldn’t want to drink in a place where they might get shot.

  James looked at a charred piece of wood hanging on the wall above a brass plaque.

  This is a piece of the original bar destroyed in the battle between James Brownstone and the cartel hitmen.

  The date of his battle with Fortis was inscribed beneath.

  A couple of college kids with USC shirts stood next to the plaque, taking selfies with their phones in increasingly outlandish poses.

  James shook his head as he proceeded toward the back and the crowd parted for him by instinct. The pub was one of the few places he could go where most people didn’t demand stupid shit like autographs or selfies with him, but he’d been drinking at the place since before h
e had become famous, even if he didn’t hit the pub nearly as often anymore.

  The Professor was in his usual spot, his cheeks already red and a half-empty mug of beer in hand. James sat across from him without waiting for an invitation.

  James used to spend a lot of time in the place, but things had changed. He had changed, but that didn’t mean he trusted or respected the Professor any less. Some things never changed.

  “Good evening, lad.” The Professor offered him a warm smile. “I didn’t know you were coming in. I’m assuming because you didn’t call, this isn’t about work.” He sounded intrigued by the possibility.

  James shook his head. “Nah. Shay doesn’t want any jobs until after the honeymoon. Try to avoid asking her, even if you need top-level talent. She’s all in as far as this wedding shit goes.”

  “I’m not one to stand between a woman and the wedding of her dreams, particularly when that woman is as lethal as Miz Carson.” The Professor took a sip of his beer. “If you’re not here for work, are you here for a drink?” A wicked grin spread across his face. “Or are you finally ready to take another crack at being the Bard of Filth? We’re not having a contest tonight, but I could be persuaded to have an exhibition match.”

  “Not that shit either. Never that shit.” James grimaced. “Something more important. Wedding shit.”

  Confusion took over the Professor’s face. “What about the wedding?”

  “I need a best man.” James shrugged. “It might sound weird, but you’re the first person who comes to mind.”

  The Professor rubbed his chin. “A best man, which means I’d have to give a speech extolling your virtues. Aye, that sounds like a lot of work.”

  James grunted. “There’s an open fucking bar.”

  “Excellent, lad.” The Professor raised his mug. “Then I’m willing to work.”