Destroyer of Worlds

7

'Ryan!' Church yelled as he watched Veitch and the Libertarian fall.

Ruth scrambled to his side. 'Remember him, Church! Don't let his memory die! Don't-'

The words died in her throat. They stared at each other in incomprehension for a moment, and then Church dragged himself to the centre of the bridge. 'What just happened?'

Ruth shook her head. 'I don't know.' She looked around. 'We… we must be… The Burning Man. We have to destroy it.'

Church nodded, although he instinctively knew that was not the correct answer. 'Where are the others?'

On cue, Miller and Jack ran in accompanied by Shavi and Tom. 'Hunter and Laura are guarding the entrance,' Shavi said, 'but there is no sign of Mallory and Caitlin. We do not have the Extinction Shears.'

'Yes, you do.' Walking along the bridge from the opposite side, the Wayfinder held high so that the blue light lit his path, came a cloaked figure.

'Hal?' Church said, baffled by his human form.

'The Caretaker,' Hal said with a smile. 'The new one. There's no time to explain. Here.' He handed over the Extinction Shears.

'What do we do?' Church asked.

'You use the Two Keys to destroy the holding matrix for the Void. And then you use the Extinction Shears to untether him from reality. The Void will be lost for ever.'

The roaring became deafening: the Burning Man glowed so brightly they could barely look at it. A deep dread closed in around them, and a feeling that a terrifying presence was only a room away.

'No time!' Hal stressed.

'The Wish-Hex in me won't be enough to destroy that!' Jack peered over the edge of the bridge into the fire.

'I can help,' Miller said calmly. 'Of course. I can see why I'm here now. As the Wish-Hex starts to destroy you, I can heal you so you can keep releasing the power. You can do that?'

'I… I think so,' Jack said. 'Keep the chain reaction going.'

Miller looked around the others. 'We always knew it was going to come to this. Don't worry about us.'

'But if you go into the abyss you'll be wiped from Existence,' Ruth said. 'No one will ever know you existed.' Just like no one knew of… A name began to come, then faded rapidly.

'Good,' Jack said. 'Then Mahalia won't feel any pain. She can get on with her life.'

His maturity brought a swell of pride to Ruth and Church.

'I wish Hunter was here,' Jack said. 'He was…' The word choked in his throat. 'Never mind.'

Jack stepped onto the edge of the bridge, and Miller wrapped his arms around him tightly.

The roaring was so loud they could barely hear themselves speak. 'Go!' Church yelled.

Jack and Miller threw themselves off the bridge. Instantly, a white light washed out, and a moment later a blue glow, the two intertwining, merging. A burst of the white light rolled upwards, and the bridge shook and then cracked, huge chunks plummeting down into the abyss.

As Church, Ruth, Tom and Shavi ran back the way they had come, Church snatched up a sword. It wasn't the shattered Caledfwlch, and he had no idea who it belonged to, but it felt right in his hand. He sheathed it. The Caretaker was nowhere to be seen.

As the bridge fell into the abyss and the white and blue light continued to roll out in waves, the structure of the Burning Man began to break up and fall apart. The scarlet flames leaped out with a life of their own, no longer able to maintain any shape.

'We did it. The matrix is breaking up.' Church opened the Extinction Shears and felt their pulsing energy rush up his arms and into his heart. He knew he wasn't really holding shears. On the edge of his perception, images shifted constantly, hinting at something much bigger, something that reached across worlds. 'Now we just need to get rid of the Void for ever.'

As the frame of the Burning Man plunged into the abyss and the flames roiled out of control, a voice rang out far behind him. 'Church! Stop them! Use the Shears! Stop them!'

He didn't turn. His concentration was fixed on the flames; he was convinced he could see a face in them that would haunt him for the rest of his days. Part of him knew the voice was Hunter's, that the warning was important. But he didn't turn.

Crying out in shock, Ruth thrust Church to one side as a seemingly endless army of spiders streamed towards the furiously churning flames, their metallic bodies glinting in the ruddy furnace light.

'Stop them!' Hunter called, closer now.

Church glanced back to see Hunter and Laura racing behind the flow of spiders. Beyond them, Cernunnos, Carlton and the Caretaker all looked on with deep concern. He realised, too late, that it was the moment his future self had warned him about so many times: when you're in Otherworld and they call, heed it right away.

The spiders flowed around the weakened essence of the Void lost in the flames, carving through reality to create a door in the air leading to the superstructure behind everything where the spiders moved freely across all time and space.

As Church raced to the edge of the shattered bridge, the swirling flames were sucked through the gaping door. Falling through, the spiders worked rapidly to seal the opening behind them.

They had taken the Void to another place, perhaps another time. They would be bringing it back.

From the doorway behind reality, coloured lights leaked out and Church felt the very nature of the cavern alter. Mists rolled all around and suddenly he was in the Warp Zone again, and there were numerous versions of himself at different points in his history, wandering, baffled, determined, scared, fighting. Desperate to send a message to himself to change what had occurred, he raced from one to the other, calling, 'Is this it? Is this the right time? You have to listen to me. This is a warning.'

But, of course, he knew it was futile.

That didn't stop him. Confused by the shifting reality of the Warp Zone, he added, 'Is this the right place? Am I too late?' To the multiple Churches, he insisted, 'When you're in Otherworld and they call, heed it right away. They're going to bring him back. They're-' Suddenly he glimpsed the spiders closing the door in the air and remembered where he was. 'Too late!' he yelled, racing out of the colours to the edge of the abyss.

With only a sliver remaining, Church brought the shears together. There was a moment when everything seemed to hang, and Church felt as if he was floating in a brilliant white light. But with a sound like the crystal-clear chime of a bell, he was snapped back into the harsh reality of the cavern and flung head over heels in a rushing wind. His head hit stone and he blacked out.