Windstorm

“This the right direction?” Peter asks, his hands at the steering wheel of the buggy for the first time. He twists around to check up with Maria, whose arm is outstretched, moving back and forth idly as if she was tracing something out in the air.

“Yes, she’s dead ahead,” Maria replies, lowering her hand. She shoots Peter an impatient look. “But do we have to be going so slow?”

“This isn’t slow, this is normal speed,” Peter replies with a smirk. “It just doesn’t feel normal since we aren’t swerving around like mad.”

“Actually, P.K., you are driving a little slow,” Joel says from the passenger seat. “You are allowed to put your foot down on the accelerator, you know.”

Peter grimaces in embarrassment and presses down harder on the pedal, causing the vehicle to roar with exuberance and bolt ahead. Peter yelps slightly at their sudden increase in speed, but he keeps his hands firmly on the wheel, ensuring they don’t spiral out of control. They had been on this particular trail for about three days, chasing down another spike of energy from the Harbinger. At the time, Maria had noted that the sudden burst of power hadn’t felt ‘malicious’ as she put it. She claimed it felt focused, strong, as if she was charging something up, rather than tearing down. None of them could figure out what that could possibly mean, but it almost didn’t matter, since they were able to track the energy down all the same.

“Where do you think she’s leading us?” Joel asks, staring out of the buggy and admiring the beautifully vast and empty sea of dunes and plateaus they had wound up in. The Garrick Wastes, Sullivan had identified it when they first arrived. A rather large expanse of almost complete emptiness, save for the occasional rocky outcropping here and there.

“I honestly don’t know,” Peter answers with a sigh.

“You said she’d been destroying towns left and right to lead you on, right?” Elyas asks from his relatively small seat in the back row, his arms held tightly to his side to give the much larger Sullivan and much smaller Maria more room. He lets out a soft growl of frustration. “I’m less interested in where she’s taking us and more in how we’re going to end this. What’s the plan for when we catch her?”

Peter hesitates at that, unsure what to say. “We…haven’t really thought of a plan,” Maria says awkwardly. “To be perfectly honest, we’re not even sure we’re a match for her. Still, we have to try, right? Someone has to stop her from killing anyone else.”

Elyas nods at that. He looks down at his hand and generates a small spark of power between his fingers, letting the power smoke and flare as he speaks. “Well, at the very least you can rely on me. I know that I can handle her power now. I’ve developed plenty of new techniques to finish her off.” He emphasizes his words by crushing the energy built up in his hand, causing it to flicker out into a shower of black sparks.

“Yeah? What kind of techniques?” Sullivan asks, his eyes narrowing in combined curiosity and disbelief.

“Three, mainly. My Ebon Blades, which can cut through anything they come across,” Elyas begins, generating a small dagger of dark energy in his hand as a demonstration. “I’ve honed my skill with these blades for a long time. I’ll be able to handle that psycho’s scythe attacks no problem.”

“Even her blasts?” Joel prompts, turning around and leaning forward with sudden interest. If they could somehow negate that monster’s devastating energy strikes without having to rely on the risky move of using the Psycho Scrambler, it would be a real game changer.

Elyas smirks cockily at that, jabbing a thumb at his chest. “Easily. My second technique is something I like to call ‘Void’. I can use telekinesis to create a reflective field of energy around myself, deflecting any and all attacks.”

“Wait, seriously?” Maria asks enthusiastically. “You’ve gotta teach me how to do that! That would be such a lifesaver!”

“You bet,” Elyas responds with a wink. “But besides all of that, my third technique is the true ace in the hole. If all else fails, I can boost my own power exponentially, allowing me to break through all limits. I call it ‘Unleashing’.”

Peter perks up at that. His mind flashes back to when he’d first fought the Harbinger all that time ago. He’d given everything he had with that Psion Cannon, and it still wasn’t enough to finish the job. He only lived that day because she wanted him to, for whatever twisted reason. If he could somehow boost his own power even further… “How do you do that?”

Elyas shrugs casually. “It’s pretty simple, actually. You just have to—”

His explanation is cut short by a sudden rumbling sensation from beneath the ground. The buggy jostles and jolts forward as the sand beneath its tires starts to shift and spray in all directions. Streams of sand erupt on all sides, sending a shower of particles into the buggy. Everyone shields their eyes from the sudden spray.

“What the heck is going on?” Joel asks, pulling his mechanic’s goggles down to see through the sand. “Some sort of geyser field?”

The ground below rumbles again, sounding like an incoming storm or explosion. “I don’t think that’s what this is…” Sullivan mutters, watching the ground intently.

The only warning the team gets is a piercing, ghoulish shriek from below before a massive creature suddenly bursts up from below, nearly managing to devour the buggy in one bite before Peter throws down the lever and boosts their speed just enough to dodge. “What the heck is that thing?” He exclaims, swerving the buggy around to avoid the monster’s follow-up diving strike. The creature crashes back down into the sand with another shriek, somehow managing to burrow itself deep below before continuing its pursuit, sending geysers of sand erupting upwards as it moves.

“It looked like a frillback, but much, much bigger,” Joel says, watching the geysers as they draw closer and closer. “Watch out! It’s surfacing again!” He reaches forward and yanks the steering wheel hard to the left, veering the buggy out of the way of the monster just in time. It leaps up from the ground, revealing its full size and form. It’s at least sixty feet long and covered in sharp scales of mottled greens and blues. Its head is adorned with a bony, diamond-shaped cape and several dozen razor-sharp fangs, each at least two feet long. It lets out another shriek before it dives back into the sand for another attempt at its prey.

“A Fanged Titan…” Sullivan says under his breath, almost reverently.

“A Fanged Titan?” Maria says with disbelief. “There’s no way. Those things are just myths!”

“Apparently not,” Elyas replies, watching closely as the sand starts to shift in strange, circular patterns. His eyes widen in realization and fear. “It’s making a sinkhole! Move!”

Peter slams on the accelerator, pushing the buggy for all that it’s worth. As the sand starts to sink below them, the Fanged Titan emerges slowly, its beady eyes locked solidly on its prey, its gnarled mouth opened wide to consume. Peter tries to coax more out of the buggy, but it’s simply at its limit, and slowly losing its battle with the sinkhole. Peter looks back and stares at the Titan, sizing it up in his mind.

“Everyone duck!” He shouts, charging a psion orb in his left hand, trying to keep the buggy straight with his right. A second before he throws the orb, Sullivan, Elyas, and Maria duck under it, allowing the sphere of energy to crash directly into the Titan’s mouth with a resounding explosion.

The Titan lets out a bloodcurdling roar and sinks down below, the sinkhole it was generating slowly coming to a stop. The buggy roars forward, finally able to get some solid traction. Peter scrambles to get a hold on the steering wheel, trying to keep the vehicle stable long enough for them to escape. He scans the area ahead, trying to find a safe place to hide from the Titan, but all he can see for miles is nothing but wide, empty, open desert.

“Behind us! There’s a cave!” Joel suddenly shouts, pointing off in the distance. Peter whips around to find that sure enough, there is a smallish plateau about a mile behind them. Peter hesitates for a moment, not sure if going backwards would be a good idea, but he makes up his mind quickly when the Fanged Titan suddenly emerges ahead of them, lashing forward for another strike at its elusive meal.

Peter whirls the buggy around, dodging the massive beast’s attack and bolting off towards the cave. The Titan lets out another shriek and charges forward, determined not to lose its prey. Peter presses as hard onto the accelerator and boost lever as he can, praying that he can be fast enough to avoid getting them all eaten, but slowly coming to the realization that the Titan is going to catch up well before they can escape.

Behind him, Elyas comes to the same conclusion and starts charging an aura of energy around himself. “Just keep driving, I’ll be quick,” he says, standing and holding his hand out to his sides. Before anyone can protest, he rockets upward, completely enveloped in thick black flames. He spreads his hands wide open, gathering as much energy as he can muster in such a brief moment. He claws his fingers and slashes forward with a guttural yell, sending four massive blades of ebon energy with each slash.

The blades collide with the Titan with explosive force, sending rippling shockwaves of pitch-black energy sprawling all over the creature’s body, knocking it off course and forcing it to dive back under the sand to evade another strike from Elyas. Satisfied that the monster has been chased off for now, Elyas bolts toward the cave as fast as he can, just barely managing to stop himself in time before he crashes head-first into the cave walls.

“That was amazing,” Maria says softly, staring at Elyas in awe.

Elyas smirks and lets himself drop to the floor. “Told you I’d be quick,” he says with a smug grin.

“That’s all well and good, but we still have a problem,” Joel says, motioning at the Titan as it slowly resurfaces, staring its prey down with its cold, soulless eyes. “That thing’s still alive. And it’s blocking our only exit.”

Sullivan stares back at the Titan, a plan slowly forming in his mind. “We got some explosives from the last village, right?”

“Right,” Joel says, stepping out of the buggy and fishing out one of the small charges from their supplies. “A few. They’re mostly for clearing rocks and debris, though. I don’t know how well they’ll do against that thing’s scales if they can survive psionic damage like that.”

“What if they explode from within its body?” Sullivan continues, unfazed by the argument.

Joel nods slowly, piecing together Sullivan’s plan in his own mind. “That should work, if we use enough of them. I’d hate to use that many charges at once, though…”

“Just get me another clean shot, and I can take that thing down, easy,” Elyas says.

“While I appreciate the optimism, that's a terrible idea,” Joel says distractedly, trying to come up with one of his own. “However, you could be a good distraction. If you could get its attention, get it to open its mouth, Maria could use her telekinesis to throw these charges into it. Then, boom.”

Elyas scoffs at that. “Great idea. I’ll just try to get eaten, then try not to explode. Why don’t you be the distraction instead?”

“Because your flying is faster than the buggy,” Joel replies matter-of-factly. “You can outrun it. I can’t. And I also can’t blast it the way you can, so that idea’s out, too.”

“Fine, but next time, you’re the bait,” Elyas says before he bursts out of the cave mouth at top speed, instantly alerting the Titan to his presence with another vicious claw slash of energy. The massive beast lets out an ear-splitting shriek and charges towards Elyas. “Come and get some you ugly punk!” Elyas shouts, sending another slash of energy at the Titan.

The Titan dives under the attack and begins the pursuit of its prey, not noticing a second figure slowly emerging from the cave's mouth. Elyas whips back around to dodge as the Titan erupts out of the ground, its gaping maw spread wide open to consume him. Elyas turns to face Maria, catching a brief ‘okay’ sign from her as she arms and levitates the charges, placing them directly in Elyas’ flight path. Elyas charges two powerful energy slashes in each hand, readying himself to strike the instant he sees the Titan’s scales.

He barely has to wait at all before he sees the telltale signs of mottled green and blue start to emerge from below the sand. With a visceral shout, he launches his slash attacks, each one colliding against the beast’s thick hide with massive detonations. The Titan screams and dives once again, this time to get enough depth to make another massive leap to catch its elusive target. Elyas flies closer to the explosives, throwing slash after slash into the sand below to bait the monster’s attack.

Elyas barely notices the sand geysers before the Titan leaps upwards, fanged maw open wide to devour. He smirks and bolts away from the giant creature a second before Maria throws the charges down into its throat with all of her might. The Titan lets out a strange, gurgling cry as the small explosives lodge themselves into its neck. It almost seems to cough, making a loud barking sound and thrashing its head, trying to clear the small obstructions in its throat.

“Good night,” Elyas says with quiet glee as he watches a series of small explosions erupt out of the Titan’s mouth. Blazing orange flames and thick black smoke billowing out of its throat, each shriek the Titan makes accented by another plume of ash and charred flesh. The Titan drops to the ground, gasping and shrieking weakly. It thrashes in the sand for a few moments before going still, only its jaws moving as it continues to make small barking calls.

“Book it!” Maria calls out to Joel. The buggy instantly roars to life and peels out of the cave with Joel at the wheel. Maria hops into her back-row seat as Joel drives by, smacking the side of the vehicle to signal him to speed up.

“Don’t wait for me, I’ll catch up,” Elyas says, keeping a wary eye on the Fanged Titan. He lowers himself down to the creature’s throat, a blade of dark energy in his hand. He walks up and attempts to slash through its throat, only for the Titan to jerk away, smacking him away with the tip of its tail. Elyas barely has time to put up a field to protect himself from the brunt of the attack before he gets whipped dozens of feet away.

Joel hears the Titan stirring and whirls around in his seat, horror spreading on his face as the monster begins to rise once again. It lets out a piercing cry and starts charging after Elyas, its eyes glowing with fury. “No way…”

“Watch it, there’s something else coming,” Sullivan announces as he feels the ground beginning to rumble. Not a moment later, two more serpentine monsters burst up from below the sand just ahead of them, cutting their escape off. Both monsters are enormous, one being at least seventy feet long, and the other a solid fifty. The larger Fanged Titan, the one with yellowed scales, lets out a furious shriek, a sound that is then echoed by the smaller reddish Titan to its side and the original greenish Titan behind them.

“There’s more of them?” Maria exclaims.

“Hang on!” Joel shouts, whipping the buggy around to dodge through the yellow and red Titans’ combined attack. “Someone cover us!”

“On it!” Peter shouts back, spinning around to face the Titans as they resurface. He launches a few stray psion orbs at the beasts, not really needing to aim to hit his targets. Each orb explodes off of the Titans’ thick hides, but they don’t seem to do much besides slow them down, and even then, not by much. As the red Titan draws nearer, Peter charges a massive orb with both of his hands and blasts it into its mouth. The orb explodes on impact, leaving billowing clouds of blue smoke and purple sparks in the beast’s fangs. The Titan coughs and roars and dives away from Peter’s follow-up strike.

“Where’s Elyas?” Sullivan asks, summoning an arm construct to punch away the yellow Titan’s tail as it nears in for a whipping attack. His question is quickly answered by a resounding crack in the air as Elyas lashes out with slash after slash. He soars through the air, diving between the green Titan’s bites and tail swipes, taking potshots where he can.

With each dodge, the Titan gets closer. Elyas’ slashes get more erratic and desperate, his flight getting more and more unstable as he pours more and more of his energy into his reckless onslaught. Finally, the green Titan manages to catch him, latching onto him and crushing down hard on his telekinetic field. Elyas tries to pry himself free from the Titan’s jaws, but his energy is sapped from his constant flight and attacks. He is barely able to maintain his void fields.

“Hold on!” Sullivan shouts to Elyas. He leaps out of the buggy and takes off towards his teammate at top speed, weaving between the other two Titan’s bodies as they attempt to crush him with their massive tails. Sullivan summons his constructs to bat away the attacks, his focus never leaving Elyas. He bolts away from the red and yellow Titans, leaving Peter behind to defend the buggy from their combined hunger.

As Sullivan nears the green Titan, he can hear Elyas’ pained shouts as the monster’s jaws slowly start to clench down, breaking through his defenses inch by inch. Elyas plants his feet firmly on the Titan’s jawbone, refusing to be devoured. He gathers up all of his willpower, every last scrap of strength he can muster, and focuses it into his void fields, pushing against the Titan’s maw with a mighty shout. The Titan roars and clamps down harder on its prey, surprised by its resilience. Elyas continues to shout, gathering more and more energy and pumping it through his body and mind. Flames of ebon black begin to envelop him, flickering in and out of existence. His shouts of determination become more feral, more bestial, as he continues to pour out his entire psyche into his fields, desperate to survive.

Elyas can barely notice the world around him. His mind is clouded by the sheer power flowing through it, his vision turning a hazy black, his hearing dulled. He almost doesn’t recognize Sullivan’s voice as he calls out to him, but he thinks he can make out one word: “Dodge.” He looks over and can make out the fuzzy form of Sullivan through the black haze in his eyes. He shakes his head to clear it. Sure enough, he can make out Sullivan, running up the side of the beast’s body, with something trailing behind him.

“I told you to move!” Sullivan shouts, his entire body erupting with pure energy, a single, massive construct of a fist cocked behind him, ready to strike.

Elyas’ eyes widen, his senses snapping back to full sharpness instantly. With one last burst of speed, he drops his void fields and darts out of the Titan’s jaws, just in time to avoid Sullivan’s devastating blow. Sullivan lets out a powerful battle cry as he launches the fist construct directly into the Titan’s closing jaw, blowing it clean off of the monster’s face. The Titan lets out a cry that is eerily close to a human scream and topples over, the impact of Sullivan’s attack knocking it completely off balance. It writhes in agony, letting out pained screeches until its cries are finally silenced by one last assault from Sullivan. As he plummets to the ground, Sullivan summons another massive construct to his side and smashes his fists of energy directly into the monster’s skull, killing the beast in one hit while at the same time launching himself into the air high enough to catch Elyas as the last of his strength gives out.

“I got you,” Sullivan says, holding Elyas carefully as they both plummet back down to the sand below. Just before they crash into the ground, Elyas manages to gather just enough energy to slow their descent down to a more survivable speed. Sullivan collides with the ground and tumbles over, his own psychic aura protecting him from the rest of the impact as he rolls to a dead stop. He manages to hold onto Elyas and keep him relatively unscathed before he picks himself back up and rushes back down to the buggy.

“On your left!” Peter exclaims as he hurls another explosive orb of energy into the red Titan’s side.

Maria shouts in surprise as the yellow Titan bursts up through the ground to her left, just barely missing its target. She latches onto another explosive with her mind and lobs it into the beast’s open maw, detonating it as soon as it closes its jaws. The resulting explosion blows the Titan’s mouth open again and shatters some of its teeth, but the beast is otherwise unfazed by this attack. “Oh for god’s sake, just die!” She shouts, arming their last charge for detonation.

“Coming in behind you!” Sullivan yells as he nears the buggy, dodging through the two Titan’s bodies. He manages to catch up to the old vehicle and leaps back in, placing Elyas into his seat as gently as he can.

“What happened to him?” Maria exclaims when she sees the extent of the damage Elyas has taken. Fresh gashes cover his arms and face, long streams of blood pouring out from each wound, ruining his already tarnished white jacket.

“He’s gonna be fine,” Sullivan says firmly. “We just have to make it out of here alive.”

“Yeah, because that’s gonna be easy,” Joel replies through gritted teeth as he swerves through another attempt from the red Titan to swallow them whole.

“I already took down one,” Sullivan says, his voice a little tired. “I can handle the others. I just… I just need some backup.”

“No… I know how to end this,” Peter says slowly. “But I need them to be lined up. Can you do that?”

Sullivan pauses for a moment, but nods. “I think I can get them to follow me if that’s what you want. What’s your plan?”

“I’m gonna hit them with everything I’ve got,” Peter replies, clenching his injured right hand to emphasize his words.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Joel asks, eyeing the injured limb cautiously. “The last time you went all out, you nearly lost that arm, P.K.. There has to be some other way we can—”

Joel’s words are cut short as the buggy starts to swerve and drift wildly, caught in a sudden swirling tempest from below. The two Titans’ heads slowly emerge from two separate sinkholes, one on either end of the buggy, using the rest of their bodies to generate the swirling pits of sinking sand to draw their prey in. Joel wrestles with the steering wheel, trying to keep the buggy on any patch of stable ground, but the Titans’ sinkholes only continue to grow larger as they keep stirring up the sand around them. Maria tries to get the yellow Titan to stop by hurling the last explosive into its face, but the beast simply shrugs off the blow like it has shrugged off every other attack it’s encountered.

“What’s the plan now?” Sullivan asks, bracing himself against the rapidly shifting and spinning buggy.

Peter racks his brain, trying to think of a way to hit both creatures with a Psion Cannon. He’ll only have one shot at this, and if he somehow blows it, then that’s it for him and his friends. For a second he considers firing two Cannons at once, but quickly decides against that plan, considering he could barely survive one before. His eyes flicker back and forth between the two Titans, fear starting to make his mind seize up. Come on, come on! Think! Peter shouts to himself. If only I wasn’t between them, I could—

That’s it! “Maria! I need you to throw me over!” Peter shouts, charging up energy between two of his fingers.

Maria whips around, completely stunned. “What the heck are you talking about?” She exclaims.

“Throw me as far over one of the Titans as you can! That way, I’ll be able to hit both with a single blast,” Peter explains, holding up his fingers like a gun.

Maria stares at Peter for a few seconds, slack jawed, before finally nodding her agreement. “Are you sure about this?” Maria asks, gathering herself for the throw.

“Just hurry!” Peter shouts.

Maria doesn’t waste another second. She latches onto Peter with her telekinesis and throws him with all of her might, sending him flying way over the red Titan’s head. The beast looks up in confusion as one of its victims suddenly flies overhead and lets out a confounded cry. Peter closes his eyes and focuses, pouring his entire psyche into a single spark of energy on his fingertips. The wind roars in his ears as he soars through the air, the constant buffeting threatening to blow his father’s bandana away. Peter snatches onto the old heirloom with his left hand, continuing to charge his attack in his right.

Concentrate your power into a single spot. Focus your mind. Ignore the pain… He tells himself, wincing as a fresh stream of fire pours through his right arm, reigniting the barely healed wounds in a blaze of pain. He ignores all of the pain and continues going over the same instructions his father Marcus had once taught him. “Psion…” Keep your eye on the target. Don’t let too much power build up. When you feel like you have enough, take your aim, steady your hand, and let it all out with one final—

“Cannon!” Peter’s eyes snap open. He thrusts his right hand out and aims directly for the red Titan’s skull. Just before he hits the ground, he fires, sending a blindingly bright blast of purple-and-blue energy tearing through the air with a deafening roar. The recoil of the Psion Cannon sends Peter flying backward through the air, but he keeps his eyes open, his aim true. The red Titan turns around just in time to see the beam of energy collide directly with its face, blasting a hole at least ten feet wide through its skull. The beam keeps ripping through the air at immeasurable speed, soaring just barely high enough to avoid striking the buggy. Everyone inside the old vehicle, even Elyas as he slowly regains consciousness, watches in awe as the Psion Cannon barrels through the air on a direct course to the final Titan. The yellow Titan shrieks in surprise as the beam collides with it, blasting through its wide maw with a sickening crack.

Both Titans drop dead as the last of the Psion Cannon roars through the vast, open desert, finally fizzling out as it collides with a distant rock formation, instantly vaporizing it. As the Titans fall, so does Peter. He crashes into the ground, bouncing off of it and soaring farther away before he finally comes crashing back down once again, skidding to a painful stop. The impact definitely broke a few bones, and the recoil of the Psion Cannon opened up fresh wounds on Peter’s arm to add to the old ones, but in the end, he’s alive, and in surprisingly less pain than he would have expected. He can feel a strange sort of comforting emptiness inside himself as if some sort of raging inferno he hadn’t noticed had suddenly gone out. He allows himself to revel in the sudden surge of comfort and calm before the fire starts to light back up within him. As his friends draw closer in the buggy, the inferno rages fully back to life, cutting his brief respite agonizingly short before sending a fresh rush of agony through his mind and body.

“P.K.! Are you okay?” Joel shouts as he jumps out of the buggy and rushes over to his friend.

“Yeah, no, I’m fine,” Peter says through a grunt, trying to stand up. His legs give out from under him, but the others manage to catch him before he falls. “Did it work?”

“‘Did it work’, of course it did!” Maria exclaims. “Those things didn’t stand a chance! You’re getting really good with that technique of yours.”

“It was very…impressive, to say the least,” Sullivan says slowly. He and Maria gently guide him back over to the buggy, trying not to put too much force onto his injured arm. “Have you always been able to do that?”

Peter groans softly as the others lay him down into his seat. “Yeah. Psionics are kinda my thing.”

“I see,” Sullivan mutters, suddenly finding himself reevaluating his entire battle with Peter a few days ago and realizing just how much the young man had been holding back that day.

“How… How did you do that?” Elyas wheezes from the back row. “So much power… Is that how you managed to fight off the Harbinger when she invaded your hometown?”

Peter nods as Joel starts the buggy back up and begins driving. “Yeah. I went all out on her, and all it did was make her more interested in me.”

Elyas’ eyes widen. He tries to sit up straight, but the pain in his body keeps him down. “That wasn’t going all out back there?”

“Close, but no,” Peter answers slowly. His eyes feel heavy, and his body feels weak. He doesn’t want to pass out, but he’s not sure he has much of a choice. As he goes under, he can make out Elyas’ last comment: “Just what kind of monster are we up against?”

***

She’s not sure why she’s doing this. Frankly, she’s not quite sure why she’s done much of anything in these past few weeks. As she stares down at the small gang of fallen bandits before her, all the Harbinger can think of is how strange this whole plan is. All she knows is that the thought had struck her randomly, and refused to leave her mind. It gnawed at the base of her skull like some sort of plague. The more she tried to brush it off, the stronger the impulse became, until it got to the point that she simply had to see it through.

The bandits cower and quiver before her, unable to so much as scratch her, despite their best efforts. Under any other circumstances, this filth would be beneath her, unworthy of her notice, but then again, she still has the itch in the back of her mind, and she has to scratch it now. She saunters up to one of the bandits and flashes him a devilish grin before lifting him up with her mind and dragging him face-first into her waiting hand. The other bandits try to protest, but they’re simply too weak to do much of anything after the thrashing she’d just given them.

She catches the bandit in her hand and clenches down hard, pouring her energy into the other man’s skull, causing him to scream in agony. He claws and kicks and cries out for help, but to no avail. The Harbinger sneers, knowing that this man’s fate is already sealed. This isn’t the first time this strange urge has compelled her to go through with this, but hopefully, it will be the last. She hates being dragged around by some nameless instinct when she has so much more important work to accomplish.

After another few agonizing moments, the Harbinger drops her latest victim, the itch in her mind finally satisfied, for a time at least. Without a word, she turns and flies off, leaving the bandits to their fate. The one she had chosen writhes in pain as a sudden wellspring of energy bursts forth inside his body. He cries in pain as the foreign energy takes hold in his body and mind, breaking and reforming both with fiery zeal. When it is all over, the bandit lets out one last final gasp before he collapses. His companions try to come to his side, but they suddenly find that they can’t move. All of them gasp in horror as they are hefted high into the air, enveloped in crimson red power. The chosen bandit slowly gets to his knees, and then manages to pick himself up onto his feet, swaying unsteadily for just a moment before he finds his footing. As his allies cry out in confusion and despair, he smiles. Without so much as looking back, he clenches his fist, crushing all of his former companions like dead leaves before dropping their lifeless corpses to the ground.

The bandit looks out into the distance, a sinister grin spreading across his face, any last traces of the man he once was burned away by the Harbinger’s blessing. All that stands in his place now is a monster, a shattered psyche carrying tremendous power. As his broken thoughts start to piece themselves back together, the bandit’s new identity is revealed to him in a flash of dark insight.

The Valkyrie has been born.