SSV 4 Chapter 11 (Patreon)

“That’s it. Up ahead.” Daeva pointed at a road that trailed in between two mountains and disappeared. The evening sun was still in the sky, helping me speed up the remaining leg of the trip.

But the sun was starting to set. By my guess, we only had another hour or two of light.

We’d need to get in and out.

I flew faster, catching sight of the city as the mountains fell away.

Spread out between the mountains was a city. From our distance it seemed whole, but there was an eerie stillness to it among the long shadows.

And as I studied it further, other details started to pop out at me. Green crawled up the side of buildings, and a few of the structures had toppled over where nature had worked to reclaim the space.

“It gets me every time.” Daeva watched the city with me. “Almost like it’s frozen in time.”

We got closer, and I could make out cars parked on the street, traffic eternally in a grid lock. “It was so sudden.” I spoke into the wind, my words feeling like they were whisked away just as quickly.

There weren’t even patterns of panic that you’d expect, like the Fenris Wolf had just descended on the city and wiped it out before they even realized what hit them.

We were starting to get close enough to make out the bones where people had died in the street.

There were so many more than local predators could have dealt with, but they’d rotted away, leaving behind sun bleached bones.

“If you look, it becomes obvious that the wolf started on the east side. The skeletons are slumped over keyboards, sitting in their cars. They didn’t even have time to react to the threat.” Daeva held up a hand for us to slow down.

Emotions were churning through me. It was one thing to hear what had happened or see photos from the masacre. It was another to see it in person.

The idea of titans destroying another city made my power swell up in challenge.

Trying to keep my head clear, I changed the subject.

“So, I wanted to get some material that I could use to help Frankie make a larger silo for her mill.” I hovered above the city, looking around at the various structures trying to decide the best place to start.

“The second you start to disturb the city, the Fenris Wolf will awaken. We are fine as long as we just observe. I’d like you to see the titan for yourself before we do that. I’m curious if you can see its powers without awakening it.” She gave me a pleading look and I lifted us up higher

“Where do you think it is?” I cast my gaze over the city, but no looming dark shape gave it away.

“It had a nest up on the north side of the city the last time I was here.” She pointed with her chin, and I let the invisible carriage slide forward, being extra careful to dampen any breeze we might be leaving with our passage.

Following where she’d pointed, I could see a dilapidated office building.

It still had six skeletons sitting around a conference table, the window was shattered, and the chairs looked like they’d fall over with a breeze, but it was unmistakably the middle of the meeting.

Those people hadn’t even had a chance to get up out of their chairs and run before they’d been hit by its fog.

I clicked my tongue and looked down at the street level. There were a few cars that had crashed in the ordeal. But many of them looked normal. I could imagine them all idling at the lights.

I could almost hear it, it looked so real.

But subtle details were off. There were flat tires, some broken windows, and moss and rust giving away their slow subdual to time.

I looked up in the direction we were heading, and four large cement cylinders stuck out to me. “That’s a big ass nuclear power plant. It was the pride and joy of Valley city at one point.”

“It powered the whole city. It’s also where we’ll find the Fenris Wolf if he’s stayed put.” Daeva replied.

Just to be sure, I looked at the power plant with my power, trying to see if it was active at all.

There was low level radiation continuing to leach out of the stone towers, but they weren’t active.

Switching what I was looking for, instead I felt for ki.

I didn’t have to reach far. It was like there was a sun in the middle of the towers. Blindingly bright blue ki swirled between the nuclear reactor stacks.

“Yep, it’s down there.” I focused and tried to dim my senses and feel for the powers of the Fenris Wolf to understand them.

But what I found was unlike anything I’d seen before. Its loops of powers extended beyond its body. That was highly unusual.

Normally physical powers were contained to the body, and mental powers were contained to the mind.

“Something wrong?” Daeva asked.

“Its powers are different. Let me focus; it’s hard to pick them out because they are so bright.” I ignored her and focused on the Fenris Wolf once again.

There was one power that was absolutely huge, extending out past its body.

That one seemed permanently active as it continued to swirl with ki.

Pushing past that one, I found a smaller power inside the wolf that seemed to be nested in the first, and beyond that there was a much smaller third power.

“Three powers, but one is massive. I don’t normally see them extend out past the body.” I felt around with my kinetic energy to see the wolf itself, but nothing showed up.

I blinked. Even though I wasn’t seeing through my eyes, it was an impulse. I knew the wolf was there, but I couldn’t feel it.

I brought us closer so that I could see the black wolf.

It was powerful, with glowing patches of blue, as if the ki itself was trying to burst out of the wolf’s skin.

“I can’t feel it with my power. It’s like it has no physical presence.” With it in my sights, I tried once more, but once again, I couldn’t feel it.

Yet it was by far the smallest titan I’d seen. Curled up on itself as it was, it was only about twenty five yards long. I knew it would be larger when it woke and stood, but it seemed less daunting just looking at it.

“Doesn’t matter how big it is. If it can destroy an entire city, it’s a titan.” Daeva seemed to read my thoughts. “But it gives me hope that humans can rival titans if we allow ourselves to grow.” Daeva added, staring down at the Fenris Wolf. “If we too can have our powers grow beyond our body, then we don’t have to be giants to compete with titans.”

“I don’t know.” Floating above the titan, I could practically feel the prickle of ki that poured off of it as it slept atop what I assumed was the office building once responsible for the power plant.

It was a completely different level than what I’d seen before.

The area around the wolf was completely crumbled, like where a dog circled and pressed down grass to make a bed.

Logic said that the wolf had to be able to interact with the physical plane on some level. Otherwise, that bed wouldn’t exist or it would fall through the ground.

“Did anything work against it when it attacked the city?” I asked Daeva.

“Not that I’m aware of. But if you want to test something, we best do it and then run. I would rather not die to it more times than I have to.” She scowled at the titan.

Her words made me reassess her last power. If she believed she’d died multiple times, then that narrowed down the possibilities.

“Let’s find a few things to take. I just want some scrap metal.” I floated up and away from the titan.

“We can find some. There is a power station that I’ve been trying to take parts from in my past visits. Skel thinks we can set up some sort of geothermal station, but we’ll need lots of specific parts from a power station to actually turn it into functional electricity. There are some sheet metal facilities too that should still have supplies.” She drifted off in a direction, and I dismissed the carriage, following after her.

After moving over the city a bit, she stopped above a substation and pointed down the road. “That was a fabrication shop. If you go further down the road, there is an auto shop too. With your power, you could probably turn an engine into usable metal.”

I nodded, figuring the fabrication shop would work better. No reason to not take the easier option, especially if the titan would wake either way.

“Just remember as soon as you start taking things, we’ll have to deal with the wolf.” Daeva yelled after me. “I’ll be ready to go in a minute. Wait that long and then grab your shit and go.” She flew down into the substation and started looking at the equipment that meant nothing to me.

I had to assume she was collecting something for Skel. The mad scientist had probably given her a description of what she needed. She was following a wire with a purpose that told me she knew what she was doing.

Heading over to the fabrication shop, I went in through a broken window.

Large machinery was laid out and gathering dust; many of them were frozen mid operation. Sheets of thin metal hung off of them, warped from debris and age.

Looking through the aisles, I found a row of rolled up metal sheets on pallets waiting to be used in the press.

I wanted to take everything, but I trusted Daeva’s advice. If she thought we’d need to move quickly, it was better to not overload myself.

I waited, counting down the minute that Daeva said that she needed to locate her targets.

When the minute was up, I wrapped my power around a dozen pallets that I could see and jerked them upwards. I shot back out the window, the pallets streaming behind me.

Daeva was in the air a moment behind me, four large sections of the substation moving with her telekinesis. “Run.”

Our movements were followed by a low growl that seemed to make the buildings shake. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

Shooting after Daeva, I moved as quickly as I could, but the sun wasn’t in the best position to get the most out of my light sails as we raced westward.

A howl shattered the air, and I understood why so many windows were broken.

The howl was followed by a white mist that rose from the city, and it took me a moment to realize it wasn’t in fact mist.

What I’d thought was mist was a deluge of pale white human figures shooting up after us.

“Oh fuck. Those are all ghosts.” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

The Fenris Wolf brought the entire city back to life, the ghosts of the dead citizens chasing us.

I formed a bead of destruction on the tip of my finger and pointed it over the ghosts. The beam ripped through the world and covered the ghosts with the blast.

The ghosts flickered after the beam passed through them, but they reformed a moment later and continued after us.

“I can’t kill them.” I shouted as I raced after Daeva.

“You did something. That’s better than my attempts. We’ll talk more when we are free.” She continued to race out of the city, but like a tidal wave, ghosts were rising up and forcing us to fly higher and higher to avoid them.

Another howl split the air and below us a black form bursted through the currents of ghosts.

The Fenris wolf chased after me, its eyes giving off an eerie green fire. It was on the hunt.

I formed another bead of destruction.

“I think we established that it didn’t work.” Daeva shouted.

I ignored her comment, grabbing her and our stuff with my power and let the energy of the bead rip free.

The beam shot down at the Fenris Wolf and launched us and our loot high into the sky, far faster than we could fly.

Daeva made a groan that sounded like she was disoriented from the sudden explosive movement.

I looked down below. The Fenris Wolf was still giving chase; it hadn’t been bothered at all by my blast.

“That was fun. But warn a girl next time.” Daeva shouted as she threw her hands down at the wolf.

The air rippled with enough telekinetic force to throw skyscrapers, and the wolf slowed slightly. But it wasn’t much.

“That did something.” I added.

“Not enough. Hurry, we’ll go play hide and seek in the clouds. Hopefully we can lose it.”

“Wait?! That’s how you escape it?” I shouted over the wind, hurtling up to join her in the clouds.

“Yep.” She looked down behind me and screamed.

I followed her line of sight, seeing a cloud of fog racing up to meet me.

I slammed my power back down at the cloud, managing to stop the fog that killed on contact.

Getting that close to death gave me an adrenaline rush, and I shot up through the clouds with my pallets of sheet metal in tow.

“Holy crap. You didn’t tell me it could fly.” I was a little upset at how dangerous the titan had become.

The wolf shot up through the clouds, without disturbing them. Its paws were afire with the same eerie green fire that poured from its eyes.

“Back down we go.” Daeva grabbed my hand and pushed down through the cloud layer, flying through it for a minute before resurfacing above it.

The titan was gone.

She might have felt like she tricked it, but I felt like I was a boat adrift in one of those jump scare shark movies.

My eyes tracked the clouds below us as if I could spot something before it came back through.

I pulled her and our loot up away from the cloud layer, eying and waiting for the titan to burst through. I was feeling more than jumpy.

“What are you doing? We tricked it.” Daeva had a winning smile on her face.

“You’ve done this before, right?” I frowned at the cloud layer but kept moving. I had no desire to get snapped up.

“Yep. And it worked. Stop fretting.” Daeva was far less concerned.

But she jumped when the jaws of the Fenris Wolf shot through the cloud layer behind us and it howled loud enough to make me dizzy.

“That’s fucking why. If it is as intelligent as you think, it isn’t going to be fooled by the same trick too many times.” I dove back down under the cloud layer.

The titan followed us through the clouds, green flames dancing from its eyes.

And behind it, I saw a surging wave of ghosts.

“Fuck. Fuck.” I cursed and Daeva looked back.

“Oh. I’ve never seen it do that before. It must be pissed.” She threw her telekinetic force behind her to try and slow the titan, but it was catching up to us.

Then, it dove back up through the clouds.

“Maybe it’s giving up.” She stated hopefully.

“Not all of us are as hard to kill as you are.” I moved away from the cloud layer, wary of another attack.

My bead of destruction had done no visible damage. I wasn’t sure if a kinetic shield would even do much to slow it.

And as we moved, I saw the stream of ghosts defied the laws of physics and moved faster. They slowly formed a layer below us.

“Shit.” I knew exactly what the titan was going to do. “We are turning around.” I grabbed Daeva and spun out one of Mona’s light sails.

I moved us back east, with the setting sun at our backs, we were far faster. Wrapping light around both of us and the loot, I tried to confuse the titan.

Sure enough, the stream of ghosts spun out like a net to trap us, and the Fenris Wolf came back down from the clouds. But we’d moved in a different direction.

The Fenris Wolf stared straight at me even though I was invisible.

It was pissed as it howled again, but I wasn’t going to stick around for much more. I wanted to get away quickly, ignoring the pounding of its ghostly feet as it raced after us.

“We are going the wrong way.” Daeva pointed out.

“It seems pissed enough it would chase us all the way back to New Haven.” I grumbled. As we moved, I considered our loot. “Can we drop this off and come back for it later?”

“I don’t see why not. It never comes for the things that are already in New Haven.” She wasn’t as concerned as she should be for the situation. But maybe that came with being unkillable.

Swooping down low, I deposited our loot on top of a hill and made sure I got a good read on the surrounding area before I jetted us above the tree line again and raced across the tops of the trees.

The Fenris Wolf and its storm of ghosts had caught up a bit while we’d dropped off the goods. I kept us moving as I tried to think up a way to deal with the ghosts.

I glanced back, taking in the ghosts with my power.

They had no physical form, but each of them had ki that flowed from the Fenris Wolf.

Forming a blade of ki, I shot it back, attempting to sever the connections.

I felt a moment of glee as I watched the connections snap. Ghosts puffed into little white clouds all around the Fenris Wolf.

“Oh, that’s working.” Daeva’s voice was drowned out by the howl of the titan as its entire body glowed it ki and it sped up again.

“On the ghosts. I still have nothing for the wolf itself.” I formed and shot blades of ki behind me to try and reduce the ghosts, but the swarm of them was just too large for the loss of a few to matter.

Valley City had lost over a hundred million souls when the Fenris Wolf had destroyed it.

“We should split up.” I told Daeva as we approached Valley City again.

“It’s chasing you, not me.” She shot off to the side and she was right, the Fenris Wolf seemed dead set on me.

“Why?” I grumbled, letting the light sail expand further, straining its structure. I wanted to get as much speed out of the sail as I could.

She joined me again and shot over the city. The Fenris Wolf only became angrier as we passed by the power plant.

I frowned and looked down at the nest it had made.

Immediately, I understood why the Fenris Wolf hadn’t moved from that spot, and why it fought so hard when people came near it.

There was another bundle of ki nestled in the power plant. It was another living creature, given the intensity of it, but based on the small size, I was willing to bet it was the Fenris Wolf’s offspring.

“Holy shit. There’s a baby titan there in the power plant.”

It was no wonder that I’d missed it. The Fenris Wolf’s power would have eclipsed it, and I wouldn’t have been able to sense it.

The pup would have been even harder to spot.

“It has a child?” She asked.

“I think the correct term is a puppy, given that it’s a wolf.” I pointed out.

Daeva gasped, and I could see the temptation to go check it out in her eyes, but I reigned her in with my power.

“Don’t you dare. We do not need the wolf going on an even bigger rampage?” I scowled at Daeva who sighed but gave up.

When we passed the power plant and continued, the Fenris Wolf dove down to check on its pup and glared at us the whole way, as if he had been purposefully trying to draw it away from its nest.

Using the opportunity of it hopefully wanting to stay in its nest, I moved us away from the area, trying to be clear that we meant its pup no harm.

Sure enough, the ghosts settled on the surface of Valley City like a layer of dust before they soaked back into the ground. The Fenris wolf seemed to have let us go for the moment.