“Have me cornered? What a funny thing to say. You must be so thrilled having the Gods of Destruction join your team.”
The master laughed.
“Not another word!” the owner threatened. “Your ‘children’ have been kicked out. Now give up and give me the Boralura’s secret. If you do what I say nicely I won’t take your life, as well.”
“Boralura!” I screamed. “You know about Boralura?”
“I know enough,” said the owner. “It’s a life-form from another dimension that made contact with this planet. It supposedly doesn’t have a finite form, but normally it’s like those…”
He gestured toward the Angels of Chakra with his chin.
“Shaped like some deformed elephant. The master, through some mental or physical contact, snatched the power.”
“You didn’t say anything about that before!” I protested.
“You didn’t ask.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Because Galbaldy stole that elephant and brought it to the mayor’s source. He wanted to make some sort of deal. He ended up being cheated with a smaller than expected sum of cash, and then Galbaldy lost his life to the master.”
“Galbaldy and the master were close?”
“He was the master’s biological father.”
Wha-wha—!!
Not prepared for that tidbit, I was knocked back about ten thousand light years.
“Owner, so from the very beginning you knew the Absolute Children of God were involved in this matter,” stated Yuri. “You knew, and that’s why you weren’t honest when we asked about Landis.”
“I don’t remember that conversation. Too far back,” he replied, turning away.
“By the greatness of Boralura!” the master suddenly spat out madly. “Only those chosen by Boralura can bond with his spirit. To the chosen are given infinite power.”
“And you are telling me that’s you?” asked the owner.
“Yes. And I will not only tell you…”
The master turned from us.
He raised up his left hand, pointing to the darkness.
The darkness changed. That area solidified and all color was instantly gone. There an image appeared.
In the center of the darkness a screen appeared.
The owner, Yuri, and I were all dumbfounded and speechless.
The image was of the rocky mountain. Near the bottom I could see the tunnel. It was Mine #16. The spot where all the Children of God had tried to escape to. The owner’s mobile infantry and flyers had made their attack there.
“Aah!”
The owner’s face turned pale.
The screen showed a view above the ground. The screen was filled with the destroyed parts from powered suits and highly maneuverable flyers. And then the saucers.
Places on the powered suits and flyers had melted, and other parts were just pieces torn off. The wreckage was strewn all across the ground.
“What the hell is the meaning of this?”
The owner had believed without a doubt in the superiority of his military. Seeing this unexpected scene sent his body into jiggly spasms.
“It means this.”
The camera angle moved from the surface of the ground up. With the grayish-white haze in the background, a single, undamaged fighter entered the frame. Having lost his fellow flyers, the pilot who still had his plane was awaiting further orders as he circled the battlefield.
The master lifted his right hand and squeezed it into a fist. Then his index finger shot out.
His finger lit up.
At the same moment an electric bolt struck the solo fighter on the view screen. It looked like he was hit by lightning. The persisttent bolts that split the sky struck the target until, after a few moments, the fighter was destroyed. The explosion sent fiery pieces of the plane in every direction.
The screen went blank.
“So now I have to ask, who has cornered whom?” asked the master, turning back to us. “Your military is destroyed. Just as I had hoped, this will all be settled here.”
“You son of a…”
The owner spoke through grinding teeth.
The mobile infantryman aimed his hand blaster at the master.
The master’s finger grew bright again.
A beam shot out.
The bright ray burned up the hand blaster.
The mobile infantryman threw down the burning weapon and bounded into the air. His movements were dizzying as he escaped.
“Of all the people on the planet, I am the sacred son Boralura chose. But there is an evil disciple chosen by the cursed beast among us,” said the master. “Show yourself, Yaksha!”
The master crossed his fingers, closed his eyes, and concentrated.
“Unh!”
Suddenly Jeff yelped in pain.
It truly came from out of nowhere.
Holding his head in his hands he fell to the floor, writhing.
“Jeff!”
Yuri and I were thrown in to such a panic that there was nothing we could do.
“Gauuuu!”
Mugi turned to the fallen Jeff and called out. His attitude shifted to hostility. I could see the fire in his eyes as he stared at Jeff.
Jeff turned and looked up. His arms and legs were in convulsions and were slapping against the floor. His mouth was open wide, and it looked like he was screaming from the bottom of his soul, but no sound emerged.
What had just happened to Jeff?
As suddenly as they began, Jeff’s spasms stopped. Turning away, with his mouth still wide open, he was frozen in place. He passed out. His pupils dilated, losing any focus.
“Gyaon!”
Mugi leapt into the air. He bounded toward the fallen Jeff.
I didn’t know what was going on.
Mugi jumped straight at Jeff. This was bad. I had no way to stop him.
“No!” I screamed with all my might.
Mugi’s claws barely avoided slicing through Jeff’s face.
But his face was untouched.
Mugi’s body landed on the other side of Jeff’s. I thought that Mugi had intended to kill Jeff. But Jeff was not the target.
Sparks flew.
Mugi had locked jaws with something that wasn’t visible to us.
Whatever it was had settled right above Jeff’s body. This was where Mugi had begun his attack on an invisible enemy.
Wha—? What?
Jeff vomited the invisible fangs?
With an ear-piercing blast, one of the Angels of Chakra collapsed. There was no doubt that we would find those distinctive tooth marks in the rubble.
This was impossible. A lie. Impossible! Unthinkable!
The invisible fangs came out of Jeff?!
How could that be?