Citizens Arise

Delilah smiled as her eyes scanned the Holographic Online Environment System (HOES), a three-dimensional mapping system that showed her every single bit of activity currently underway in the LusciousLockian National Palace. She could see every dungeon. Every corridor. Every tunnel. And she could see that Latvia, Estonia, Felix and Winfry had just broken Isa out.

Delilah smiled, not only from amusement at her opponents’ naivety bordering on idiocy; she smiled because soon, every piece of the puzzle necessary for her to do what she had to do would be in place. She would have all three sisters. And she would have all three quilaires. Space, time and infinity, captured in their entirety. After that, AssMachenstan’s triumph over Foggistan and Coralende would be inevitable.

She turned away from the table projecting the HOES, glancing at the plush recliner where Lithuania lay, unconscious. In the corner of the beige marble room stood Marco, his eyes blank, waiting like an automaton for Delilah’s next command.

Delilah walked towards the balcony and out into the open air. Tonight would be a victorious night. She and her other selves had already managed to more or less align numerous universes. And the more universes aligned with similar outcomes, the more likely it was for the remaining universes to slip into alignment as well. As for her universe… it wasn’t aligned yet, though after tonight, it would be. She was one quilaire and two sisters away from achieving that. And those two sisters and one quilaire were already within her grasp, projected on the HOES.

Delilah inhaled the fresh LusciousLockian air. A little too fresh, for her taste. The LusciousLockian National Palace had been erected on the edge of Green City, where the expanse of prairie between the city and the woods was shortest. Her balcony faced the opposite direction, towards the city. A city composed mostly of one to two-story glass buildings, sprinkled with the occasional glass skyscraper and surrounded on all sides by trees. LusciousLocks hadn’t seen sunlight for weeks, and this was beginning to show in the vegetation. Up above, the stormy skies swirled in shades of black and gray. Between Delilah’s balcony and where the city began was Evergreen Plaza, a large, grassy expanse with large, rectangular fountains on either side. This was where LusciousLockians congregated for important public announcements delivered by the Prime Minister.

Delilah chuckled. That wouldn’t be happening any time soon. “Show yourselves,” she whispered softly into the wind. At first, it was as if the wind was picking up, sweeping gently over the grass of Evergreen Plaza. Then, one by one, the specters appeared. Standing, at first, like shivering pillars of mist, then slowly solidifying into elongated beings of trembling light. Their features human, their eyes vacant. Hundreds… thousands… They were unarmed, but the blankness of their expressions indicated they were capable of anything, and the nature of their bodies suggested they might not be easily destroyed.

Had any LusciousLockian survivor been present, he would easily have recognized the faces. The new lifeless, soulless agents of AssMachenstan. These were the citizens of Luscious Locks—in their new form. “Surround the premises,” said Delilah sweetly. “And feed… on any human beings who emerge.”

In an instant, the beings took to the sky and dispersed.

“Guard her,” Delilah said to Marco. He nodded.

Then, shrouded in black smoke, Delilah leapt off the balcony… and became the Monolith.

---

“We’re almost there,” said Estonia, leading the group through the tunnels. “I can sense the city limits up ahead—” she stopped short.

“What is it?” Latvia asked, dreading the answer just by the look on Estonia’s face. “I don’t know. There’s something up there. Everywhere up there. I can’t figure what it is but there are millions of them running around up there and they are all exactly the same. I have no clue what’s going on.”

Then they all heard a series of little puffs, like the expiring flame on a series of very large candles. “What was that?” Winfry whispered.

“Oh shit,” said Estonia, her eyes wide like plates. “Some are coming into the tunnels. They’re in the tunnels!”

Isa whipped out her quilaire. “Estonia, focus,” she said. “We’re not getting out the way we came in. You’re going to have to break us out with a portal.” She took Estonia’s hand, and activated her quilaire. Focusing with all her might, Estonia set her own quilaire magically ablaze, and a second later they were all crawling up through the ground and out the tunnels.

“Shit, we’re in the middle of the city,” Estonia moaned. She couldn’t see the beings, but she could sense them everywhere.

With a wave of her quilaire, Isa created a cloud of mist. “This should hide us long enough. Let’s go!” They began to run, almost blindly within the cloud of mist, guided by Estonia’s spatial sensing abilities. They heard gunfire. Whizzing bullets. It was overkill, on AssMachenstan’s part, to fire so much at such a small group, and yet all the bullets were, apparently, missing.

That’s when they heard the screams. Howls of pain. Of terror. All around. Could it be that the people of Luscious Locks had finally appeared, and were being attacked? Had Foggistan come to their rescue and fallen into an ambush? Whatever it was, it was mayhem, and the bullets weren’t directed at the little running cloud of mist.

Panting. Tripping. Gasping. Soon the pavement beneath the group’s feet turned to lawn, and from lawn to tall grass. They were approaching the woods. “We’re almost there you guys. We find Lithuania and Marco— then make a run for the Haven.”

Then the trumpeting sound emerged, like a trembling groan from the depths of the earth, shaking everything. “Don’t stop!” Estonia cried, but already the Monolith’s magic-altering abilities were taking effect, and the group’s protective cloud of mist was beginning to disappear.  

It wasn’t until they reached the woods and the cloud of mist had almost entirely disappeared that Winfry noticed. “Where is Isa?” Felix peered out through the thick of the woods, rifle at the ready.

“Winfry, don’t move,” he said.

Winfry, of course, dashed to look out the forest edge, at which point Felix preventively yanked him by the collar and cupped his mouth, for out in the prairie between Green City and the LusciousLockian National Palace stood Isa, staring down the Monolith. A massive black beast wrapped in sheets of smoke and streaks of flame, Winfry would only remember that it more or less resembled a woolly mammoth on fire. Surrounding Isa and the Monolith were hundreds of AssMachenstani soldiers, all of whom seemed more intent on watching their backs and huddling close to the Monolith than on preventing Isa’s escape.

“You’re crazy to face me,” came Delilah’s voice, echoing forth from the Monolith’s head. “You know this, of course.” Isa’s silence was absolute, interrupted only by the occasional yelp from one of the AssMachenstani soldiers getting snatched up by a specter.

“I sense them everywhere,” whispered Estonia in her sister’s ear, as they watched Isa in quiet terror, “But I can’t see them. They’re feeding on the AssMachenstanis…”

“Allies?” Latvia asked.

Estonia shook her head.

“I’m impressed you were able to get this far,” continued the Monolith. “I didn’t think your friends would be so foolish as to come back.” Isa continued standing firm, unaffected. “I will not be so kind to those that ran. Your Winfry in particular. Oh… how he will suffer.”

“Isa…” muttered Winfry desperately under his breath. “What are you doing?”

“So you don’t like the small talk?” said the Monolith threateningly. Isa gripped the quilaire tightly in her hand. “Well neither do—”

Isa instantaneously held the quilaire aloft and shot a blue bolt of magical electricity straight at the Monolith’s face. The creature dematerialized just in time, letting the bolt shoot straight into a cluster of soldiers and blast them to bits. Outside the city limits, Isa had her magic back.

Delilah rematerialized in her human form, her eyes flashing with hatred. She thrust her arms forward, sending a burst of black flame that ignited Isa on the spot.

“NOOOO!!!” Winfry wailed. Felix held Winfry back, stunned, though caught too off guard to remember to cover Winfry’s mouth, while Latvia and Estonia could hardly move from the shock. The devil’s fire engulfed Isa entirely, her frail silhouette hardly showing through the thick black flames. There was an uproar from the soldiers and a victorious trumpeting sound from Delilah’s bosom as Isa’s figure collapsed on its knees, then fell, face first, to the ground.

Dead.

Winfry was, at this point, screaming hysterically, and in seconds both Delilah and the soldiers were aware of his position. Felix silenced him with a swift rifle butt to the head, threw him over his soldier, said, “Come on!” to the sisters and began his mad dash into the depths of the woods, headed for the Haven.

Amidst tears, Estonia screamed, “They’re coming! They’re all around us!”

Felix, beating through the brush, soon concluded she wasn’t talking about the AssMachenstani soldiers pursuing them. From the corners of his eyes he could see white figures, materializing here and there, disappearing just as soon as they appeared. And by the sudden screams of random soldiers behind him, he figured these beings of white smoke attacked indiscriminately. It was only a matter of time before one of them caught someone from his group.

Suddenly, a bright light shot down from above, slamming Winfry and Felix to the ground. Felix quickly recovered. “Winfry! WINFRY!” he slapped him into consciousness. Winfry’s chest was steaming, like something had—

Winfry opened his eyes and felt instantly for his chest.

There, seared into his skin, was Isa’s quilaire.