Stretched beyond her sockets, her eyes were wide—glued to the screen. Makoto was frozen in horror. The monitors buzzed back.
There were three giant silhouettes, casting vast shadows over the pale canopy of the trees below. Her eyes darted from screen to screen, trying to analyse every angle of the vessels.
In the command room, radio chatter harmonised in a chaotic symphony; a babble of reports of the giant structures floating among the clouds.
The eyes of Makoto wandered to her right, Dr Josep Entenga, brows furrowed, lips surprisingly relaxed given the situation.
How is he so calm? The supervisor thought. But she didn't ask him. Instead, she rose from her seat and was met by an audience of agents, with eyes that begged for her guidance.
Not expecting this much pressure, she cleared her throat before ensuring her lungs were full of air.
"Full retreat!" the woman called, her voice firm and her mind clear. "Make sure all teams are extracted and ready to leave."
Without a word, the agents' heads shot back to their screens, a flurry of orders calling for retreat bombarded the room.
Makoto felt an immense pressure on her wrist. It stung.
"What are you doing?" the doctor asked through gritted teeth. Skin folded between his brows, and his eyes forced their way out from under them. There was fire in those eyes.
"This will all be for nothing!"
"They'll die in there," she responded in a low voice, ripping her wrist from his grip.
His eyes wandered away slowly—head shaking—his brows were still low, but the fire in his eyes had been extinguished.
The moment he gave up was the moment she immediately sat down and snatched the radio from the desk. The dial spun, frequencies screamed as the channels changed faster than the speed of light. There was one person who instantly came to her mind in all this chaos.
"Himiko!"
I felt a vibration on my collar.
The call of my name instantly shot me back into reality.
"Mrs Isamu, is that you?"
"Full retreat, Himiko. You need to get your team out of there."
"We can't… they've got us pinned down in the heart."
We had retreated to the cavern once they appeared. Gabriel was at the entrance, keeping the interior sealed from the invaders. Aiko and BB were alongside him, guarding.
"I'll have a team come and—"
"No." I didn't let her finish; I didn't want lives to be thrown away. "Get everyone out… I'll sort out my squad."
"Himi—"
I muted the radio.
Can I get us out?
Or was I just lying to her—to myself?
Silence filled the air. The high-pitched shrill of bullets striking Lefèvre's shield occasionally pierced through in the distance.
It was dire. Bodies slumped over, heads buried in knees. No one knew how to react; they just sat quietly, leaning against the walls, waiting for what would happen next.
Morale was destroyed.
"Himiko!" Aiko shouted from the other room, "Come look at this."
I heeded her call. Aiko was crouched down on one knee, observing something in the distance through a pair of binoculars.
"What do you see?" I asked as I approached.
"It's him."
She pointed at something in the distance, handing me the binoculars as though she wanted me to figure out what it was for myself. My fingers wrapped around the body of the binoculars, and I placed them to my eyes. I scanned the backdrop, skipping over the giant alien structures, trying to find 'him'.
She was right.
My eyes met the lip of the crater, and standing on top was the silhouette of a creature we've come to know well.
It was the Sylvacapra.
He took a step over the edge… and dropped. The cracked wall scraped under his feet. Once he finally landed on the ground, weapons locked on. His aura preceded him—the alien soldiers trembled.
The Sylvacapra counted the aliens with its eyes, whilst also analysing the intricacies of the alien vehicles. Small aircraft began to hover closer to the tree beast, aiming its weapons straight at the creature.
It moved.
Slashing an alien straight down their chest, the creature took their body, using it as a shield against the alien gunfire. Green blood spewed. Roots rose from beneath them, slashing, spearing, and submerging them into the soil. It was truly a scene from hell.
Bullets rained down from above—the fighter. The great tree, despite its size, moved rapidly, sliding along the roots like the ground was a part of its shell. He knew his next target.
Dashing forward, he raised his foot and stomped. Roots slithered from ground to air, strangling a vehicle in front of him—a tank. Metal moaned, the body buckled. wrapped in roots, the tank dragged along the floor in a circle, flattening retreating soldiers. Momentum built, after a few rotations, the tank flew through the air with immense speed, smashing into the fighter. There was a fireball in the sky, scrap metal scattered, raining onto the soil below.
The chaos continued. He began taking down vehicles one by one, killing a hefty number of soldiers along the way. But it was hardly making a dent in the army that filled the crater.
"Looks like we share a common enemy, eh?" Aiko jested.
"It seems to attack anything," I mumbled, turning to the farmer. I began to ask, voice much clearer, "You said in your journal that it didn't attack you, is that right?"
His eyes began to wander as he wondered, "Yeah…"
"There has to be some kind of intention behind who it attacks." I wondered.
"Could be something to do with how close you are to this tree," Aiko added.
"Maybe…"
"Captain Himiko!" Miko yelled from the core, "Something's happening with the entity."
With haste, I migrated to the cavern.
The roots holding the entity creaked and snapped. The blue ghost's body was drooping more and more. We watched—tense. All eyes were locked on the entity.
With one final snap, the body fell, slamming onto the floor. The thud reverberated across the cavern.
Footsteps followed straight after, from behind me.
"What happened?" It was Aiko.
"The body…" I responded, "It just fell."
"That's good, right?" Miko asked, "That saves us the job of cutting it down; makes it easier to take with us."
I was too focused to answer the question. My mind was enraptured by the limp body in the centre.
"Himiko," Aiko turned to me, "what's the pla—"
A loud groan cut off Aiko. It came from outside, low and deep, like a warhorn sounding for battle. It continued, lasting for what felt like an eternity. It faded—slowly—what followed was a moment of agonising silence.
"This fucking place, man," Jason mumbled under his breath.
"Damn, right, I can't wait to leave." Ajay concurred.
"So does everyone else, but unfortunately, there's an army outside waiting for us," Miko said.
"The Sylvacapra's fighting them," I revealed.
Miko's eyes shot straight towards me—wide—brows low.
"Don't even think about it," I demanded, waving my finger at her, "I want to make sure we all leave here—alive."
She sighed. She didn't respond, but her tense body language showed her disagreement.
"You think Connie would want you to throw your life away?"
Miko shut her eyes and relaxed a little.
"No."
"Hey, is it just me, or is the ground shaking?" Aiko asked.
I felt it now—rumbling. It was like an earthquake or a stampede. I rushed to the entrance.
"Stay here," I called, halfway out of the cavern, "I'm gonna go check what's going on."
"What's going on?" I asked Gabriel.
"Look."
He pointed at the rim of the crater. Mutants. Giant winged behemoths emerged from the treeline, slamming into fighters and the tall canons. Boars, bears, bulls and other mutated monstrosities materialised from the shadows of the trees. With no fear, they leapt into the crater, bodies slammed against the floor, pulverising into a blue pulp as they hit the crater's surface. The others didn't care; they used the carcasses of their comrades to cushion their fall.
The soldiers and the Sylvacapra had stopped fighting once they arrived, shifting their attention to the new threat.
Artillery fired. The crater lit up as armaments ruptured the surface. Flesh, bone and blue ichor splattered as the shells his, but it didn't halt their advance. The aliens were tossed and ravaged.
The tides were changing.
But the aliens had an ace up their sleeve.
Large metal structures carved their way through the canopy above, crashing into the beasts. Giant silver pods with doors that threw open. What emerged were giant beasts with four arms and razor-sharp teeth, as well as the exact same soulless eyes that stared me down back at Rengappon—they were the same creatures.
They fought back, along with the Sylvacapra, tearing through legions of mutants. It was chaos incarnate.
Our opportunity had arrived.
I dashed back to the cavern, leaving Gabriel and BB behind.
"Have you seen anything?" Aiko asked.
"It's hell out there…" I replied. "That sound must've been some kind of rallying cry; mutants are piling in."
"Well, ain't that great." Jason sighed.
"This is great," I countered, "we can use the chaos to cover our escape."
Their eyes brightened; hope had returned.
"While they're focused on fighting each other, Gabriel can make a ramp down the side of the crater, like he did on the way here. We can have them drive down here, get in, and get out."
They nodded, smiles curled on their faces.
I pulled out my radio, unmuting it.
"Himiko," Aiko whispered as loud as she could as she pointed to the entity in the centre.
The being's hand was placed firmly on the floor, elbow up. It's arched, and its face slowly lifted off the floor. Twitching, the other arm slid out from under it, providing even more support for it ascendence. In a slow angelic movement, the being levitated to its feet, stretching in an effort to recalibrate its body. Blue eyes. Eyelids opened, what met my gaze was majestic, bright blue eyes that lit up the air between us.
The angel had awoken.