Ravens of Eternity

Chapter 323

323 Force of Nature, Pt The trio were practically overwhelmed by their telepathic union. It seemed to them that they were floating amidst a vast ocean whose waters were made of their own thoughts and emotions. Not that they were drowning in it, or were lost among it.

In fact, it was the opposite. It was calm and serene and warm. There was just so much of it around them.

To them it was akin to being inside a kaleidoscope, where their surface thoughts and emotions echoed and mirrored out in every direction.

It dawned on Freya that they were connected due to their ability to be one with themselves. That bound them together, and as a whole, strengthened them. The energies they drew out from within themselves was the catalyst with which they became inextricably linked.

And as she realized it, it spread between the other two, who equally understood what she was thinking.

“My Primal Blood,” thought the wolf, “connected with your Ascendant Form, and your True Harmony. What is this?”

“Maybe it means we can share our strength?” Freya replied.

“If that’s true, then the same goes for our anger,” Lucifer added.

“Our pain too,” the wolf finished off thoughtfully.

.....

All three swam peacefully, in the midst of that revelation. The feeling of it swept through them like one giant sigh of relief.

The same feeling one gets from knowing they aren’t alone.

“As fun as this is,” Lucifer said eventually, “we’ve got a whole lot to do. We’re still on a job, even if it’s a freebie.”

“Right,” Freya replied. “Let’s keep the connection, but tone down the flood. Or try to anyway.”

The trio then concentrated as best they could, and minimized the flow of their thoughts and ideas, but kept connected to each other. A thin line that bound them, yet allowed them to stay in reality at the same time.

Everything sunk back to view as the kaleidoscope faded away, and the trio were once again faced with the reality of the lab around them.

It was sobering to say the least.

“Well, you know us as Freya and Lucifer,” Freya thought to the wolf. “What do we call you?”

“I am nameless,” the wolf replied.

Lucifer frowned on hearing that. Everyone and everything deserved a name.

“Then we’ll have to find one for you,” ze said.

“Suggestions welcome,” the wolf replied. “First...”

The wolf clambered to her feet shakily, even as her wounds slowly stitched themselves together. Blood seeped out of the freshest of them, and further matted the fur all around. Despite the pain she felt, she still took a step forward.

Freya motioned to stop her from moving, to allow the medinject to do its work, but the wolf kept on going.

“Your healing salve is appreciated,” she thought out loud. “But inadequate.”

The sniveling lab tech groveled at their feet, in hopes of being let go. Instead, he screamed in pain as the wolf’s razor-sharp teeth bit skin-deep into his shoulder.

The wolf paid him little mind, and with a vengeful thought, bit down hard.

Her teeth ripped into the technician’s muscles easily, and snapped his bones into fragments. She then placed a paw on his body and held him down before she yanked hard with her head.

He screamed in absolute pain as he was torn apart by the wolf’s jaws. She had ripped out his entire upper left section of his body, and took his left arm along with it. Blood flowed freely from his wounds, even as she chewed and crunched the portion she had.

Then once she swallowed it, bit down again, this time over his head and chest. She tore that portion off with equal ease as before, and began to feast while he bled all over the lab.

A wave of contentedness radiated out of the wolf as she chewed the technician to death, which flowed lightly over Freya and Lucifer as they watched. They too felt her ease, as well as the boost in energy she received. And to their astonishment, watched as the wolf’s wounds closed up faster and faster.

Far better, and far more efficiently than any medinject could do.

“What about the others?” Freya thought out loud. “I mean, if they ate, would they recover, too?”

“Possible,” the wolf replied. “Many feel powerless. They can barely connect with me, much less eat.”

“Then we bring it to them,” Lucifer said. “We kill everyone on this blasted barge, and feed ’em to the wolves.”

Hir bloodlust poured out in droves, which struck the other two in waves. They found themselves unable to disagree. But Freya’s sense of unity prevailed.

“Not without a vote,” she said. “We only came here to take a look, not to upend the barge. And don’t get me wrong – I wanna break this place in two. But we can’t rope the entire fleet into it. They have to choose to do this.”

Though the thought was sobering, Lucifer knew she was right.

–

Lucifer: We can easily confirm that the intel packet is inaccurate.

Lucifer: The reality is worse than reported.

Lucifer: And I have some footage to prove it.

Lucifer: We can’t simply leave here after having seen what we have.

Lucifer: Freya and I just can’t ignore it.

Lucifer: We will be doing something about it.

Lucifer: And we ask that you back us up.

Lucifer: I’m calling a vote.

Claire: Alright.

Claire: I read the report, too.

Claire: And if you’re both saying it’s worse, then I’m in.

Claire: But we can’t get through that barge’s defenses.

Claire: We don’t even know what they have under the water.

Xylo: Agreed. We need more intel.

Xylo: And if we do a fleet-wide vote, we’ll need that footage.

Xylo: Just to show why we’re doing this.

Raijin: However, their comms and circuits are totally closed off.

Raijin: We will need to open a line and weaken their security.

Raijin: Find a communications array.

Raijin: Send us your data.

Raijin: And I will attempt to break in at the same time.

–

Lucifer looked down at the EyeCast in hir hand – the same one that was recording footage for one of the technicians ze had killed. The video data in it was all ze needed to win the vote.

~

The wolf charged forward with great speed and crashed paws-first into an utterly bewildered security sentry. Though her claws did little more than dent his light armor, the sheer amount of force she applied instantly broke his neck.

His body landed on the ground with a heavy THUMP, with her standing proudly over her kill. And unsatisfied with killing him so quickly, she clamped her jaws around his head and tore it off with ease.

The next closest sentry fell to the ground in utter terror at what he was seeing. His mouth was wide open and quivering out of overwhelming fear. It peaked as the wolf crunched down on his dead partner’s severed head, and swallowed it.

Helmet and all.

Then she pounced on him, clamped her jaws around his waist, punched through the armor and into his flesh, then shook her head with wild abandon. The sentry flailed uncontrollably as she shook, and his extremities were flung around with absolute violence.

His neck broke with a loud SNAP, at which point she dropped his bleeding corpse on the ground.

While the wolf charged at a third opponent, Lucifer went straight for a sentry closest to hir. Ze swatted the pistol out of his grip and tossed it to the other side of the room. Without skipping a beat, ze threw a flurry of elbows and knees at his upper body, which left numerous dents and cracks on his armor.

“How about Lupa,” said Lucifer as ze dismantled hir opponent. “She was the she-wolf who discovered the twins Romulus and Remus. She raised them, kept them safe. Then when they grew up, they founded Rome.”

A myriad of Lucifer’s memories echoed in the others’ minds, and filled with the general gist of the old Roman myth.

“Nice name,” the wolf replied as she bit down on another sentry. “But inaccurate. You two found me, not the opposite.”

“Plus, Romulus killed Remus,” added Freya. “Over a really stupid argument, too.”

“Fine, fine. How about Cerberus?” Lucifer asked. “Three headed hell dog who guarded the gates of the Underworld and kept the dead from escaping?”

“How about we discuss this when the room’s clear?” Freya retorted.

She rushed towards a sentry who raised a rifle and pointed it at Lucifer. But before he could squeeze the trigger, she kicked it right out of his hands. Then she threw a punch straight into his gut, then struck him hard with a left hook to the temple.

The sentry hit the floor with a WHUMPH, and stopped moving altogether.

Freya looked up to see Lucifer continue breaking hir target bone by bone, strike by strike, all while the wolf finished off the last of the sentries. As always, she was absolutely savage with her attacks, and tore the man to pieces.

The wolf made sure to eat at least some part of her kills, even if said part was encased in titanium armor.

Once ze was satisfied, Lucifer walked up to the main terminal, plopped down on the terminal’s seat, cracked hir bloody knuckles, then dug into the code.

“There’s also the wolf Fenrir,” Lucifer continued, even as ze opened up a secure communications line. “Who, according to myth, will one day devour the sun at the time of Ragnarok and kill Odin, the god-king.”

.....

“Sun?” asked the wolf. “I am not sure what it is. Or why I must eat it.”

“How about Amarok?” Freya pitched in. “The legendary giant wolf who stalked and killed humans in the night, as punishment for their... foolishness.”

“This, I like. Tell me more.”

“I don’t know much, honestly. Just the bits that an old friend told me. He told me a story about how Amarok came to help a young boy who was shunned by his village for being weak. In the fable, Amarok trained the boy until he was strong enough to wrestle against bears. And win. So thanks to the wolf’s help, gained respect from his fellow villagers.

“Amarok. I shall adopt it. Thank you.”

While they spoke among each other, Lucifer slid open a small compartment on the terminal itself. Ze then placed the EyeCast into it, then closed the compartment. Within moments, the footage it had taken was uploaded to the terminal itself.

From there, ze attached it to the secure communications line that he and Raijin worked to establish.

It shot up straight towards the fleet. Up there, the Ravens decided to show the raw footage to the rest of the fleet, and allowed them to watch the different horrors that were happening below.

Almost everyone was utterly sickened by what they saw. The injustice and inhumanity of it all. And given they were who they were, many immediately identified with the wolves. They saw the chains, and the pain, and the hopelessness.

And when Claire opened up the vote to act, most didn’t just approve. They volunteered to help sink the boat to the bottom of the ocean.