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She gaped at him as she tried to grasp what he was saying.
More screams reached their ears, tinged with pain this time, and Irillith shrieked in terror, "John! It's nearly through!"
He glanced behind him, and saw that the tunnelling maws had burrowed several pits in the onyx around them. Wickedly hooked tendrils were wriggling under the small holes appearing around the base of the dome, and one of them had slashed Irillith's leg with a cruel talon. He seized his sword again, and began frenziedly hacking any barbed appendage that tried to snake its way through.
Calara grabbed the paralysed blonde, and hugged her fiercely. "I love you," she whimpered, knowing that they had only seconds left before the unspeakable horror would be upon them. She pressed her lips against Alyssa's giving her one final kiss goodbye.
A Progenitor derives their power from the women in their thrall, and as wondrously unique as Alyssa was, a female Progenitor was no different. Calara's loving kiss roused Alyssa from her daze, and her pupils flared as she sucked in a breath. Her mind felt clear and sharp once more, the debilitating aura of fear no longer clogging her mind and leaving her helpless.
"... Something you can do..." John's desperate plea echoed around Alyssa's mind, until her eyes suddenly narrowed in fury. She turned to look at him, and yelled, *I know what to do! Drop the shield on my command!*
*Drop the shield?!* he balked, but the look she shot him left him in no doubt of her sincerity.
"Stand clear," she warned Calara, who backed away from her in shock.
Alyssa began gathering her will, and a shrieking, howling wind tore around the dome, with her at the epicentre of the vortex. Eldritch energy surged towards her, swathing her body in glowing white light that cascaded down her arms to gather at her hands. Raising her fists towards the gigantic terror, she cried out to John, *Drop it now!!*
The hundreds of eyes embedded in the creature's grotesque otherworldly limb all stared at the glowing girl in shock. Square, vertical, and round pupils all widened in disbelief, the leviathan experiencing fear for the first time.
John was about to let the dome harmlessly dissipate, but at the last moment, he changed his mind. He channelled the huge amounts of eldritch power across the bond with his Matriarch, pouring vast streams of psychic energy back into her glowing body.
Alyssa let loose a wordless scream as she blazed brighter than a supernova, and an incandescent beam blasted out of her to hit the limb square-on. The searing white light incinerated tar-like flesh by the tonne, obliterating those disgusting eyes in one awe-inspiring moment of raw power. The hideous nightmare gurgled in agony and terror, its remaining half-dozen limbs flailing away into the fog as it toppled backwards.
Flinging his sword away, John dove into the group of girls, gathering them to him just as he gathered his will. He focused on their bedroom back on the Invictus, filled with desperation to escape this state of limbo they currently found themselves trapped in. The Astral Plane seemed to rip away as he unleashed the pent-up energy, and they were thrown back into the real world in a shocking instant.
They all lurched upright, panting for breath, hearts hammering in their chest. Gasping sobs filled the room as they clung to each other, overwhelmed with relief to have survived the terrifying nightmare.
"I'm never fucking sleeping again!" Dana swore vehemently as she hugged Rachel, their faces wet with tears.
- COMMENTS
ShaggyDogStory2 months agoI'm aware the author has admitted playing fast and loose with human origins. We are cousins to the Neanderthals, not descendents. We've also been around a lot longer than 40,000 years - that's the latest date our ancestors left the African continent.
On that point, it hasn't missed my attention that the main characters feature four Caucasians, two aliens, an Asian and an AI. The one time a darks skinned character was discussed, the reporter, she was described as 'exotic'. Given the main protagonist is half-alien, that seems a bit of an overstatement?
There are some weirdly antiquated stereotypes and turns of phrase concerning culture, ethnicity and religion throughout the series, as if frozen for seven centuries. Many sci-fi worlds use this as an opportunity to invent new ones (The Expanse TV show developed a whole dialect for Belters, on top of their culture in the books), but not here. Given many humans have never been to Earth by this point, why would they hang on to these notions, and not be more ethnically intermingled?
E.g. The addition of Sakura, and indeed all identifiably Asian characters, are straight out of TVTropes "All Asians Know Martial Arts" page.
Michael56Smith9 months agoA major milestone in this chapter was Faye's new Progenitor (thank you Nexus) server, much more powerful a processor with tons of memory space available, Faye's new home is Awesome, ...
then after Sakura's 3rd dose, John has one of his horrible Astral Nightmares, ... 'as they clung to each other, overwhelmed with relief to have survived the terrifying nightmare.' "I'm never fucking sleeping again!" Dana swore vehemently, .... it was rather terrifying for all the girls, and John too, .... awesome chapter, thank you Tef, ... ;-) ttfn
Rhino77PIlot10 months ago@!purplefizz
Having spent half of my military career in foreign lands, I learned that all of us have pretty keen senses of humor. A good part of my time was around USAF Europe Headquarters where I had contact with several RAF officers. I recognized the "too much rehead in the diet..." line as a great exemplar of British droll wit -- the type that may well produce beer foam spouting from nostrils if released whilst hoisting a pint....
Thank you again, Tefler!
Rhino77PIlot10 months agoMust have been an explosive multi-braingasm.
(After all the largest and most responsive sex organ is the brain.)
