After I checked in with Serena one more time, the three of us made our way to the streets in Bella’s thankfully nondescript car. Dori and Ale now donned thick coats and face masks along with brimmed hats to better hide their faces. It may had been overkill, but I would settle for nothing less.
“There!”
I pointed at a flash of white in the corner of my vision—which turned out to be someone who wore a white bed sheet over their head with eye-holes cut out. They flipped me off before storming away from us.
Considering it was already a weekend, the stores and streets screamed busier than ever—which made blending in all the easier. Of course, each packed intersection and over-flooded department store meant our mystery mummy had more places to blend in. Not to mention…
“Keep moving!” Ale urged Dori, who had stopped to stare at the windows of a hat boutique. I had to grab him and yank him along, his body limping beside me in a worn ragdoll fashion, to continue onwards.
“Sorry,” Dori mumbled, head swished too and fro, tufts of hair twirling about on the currents the winds cut through the cold air. “Hmmmm…not there, not there, not thereeeee…”
To keep an eye on those two and on my surroundings unfolded into an arduous task, but it was precisely the kind of mission made for a hero such as I. Eagle eyes to the roads ahead, my weapon laid in my soul—sharp and ready to tear, the talons on my toes, the claws on my fingertips, ready to sink into anyone who wished to challenge us. Despite it all, though, the hot puffs of breath that escaped reminded me of the freezing cold which choked us, squeezed us of our warmth and—
Ale screamed.
“I’m so sorry!” He backed away from someone—I couldn’t get a very good look since I had busied myself with scanning another intersection in the distance while the two conversed.
“Oh, my ice cream…”
“I—I’ll buy you a new one! No, no, in fact, take fifty bucks!”
“No, no, it’s all right. This was its fate. To melt and be maligned.”
“Ah, okay…? Goodbye…”
Dori gasped, low and nearly unnoticeable. “Wait, Ale, that’s…”
…No.
I flipped on my heel. The woman, the very same one from the security footage, waved goodbye to Ale and floated into the air, up towards the rooftop of a massive department store across the street.
“There she is!” I yelled and took off. “To arms!”
No time to hesitate. The buildings in Saturni possessed an age older than the ones you’d find on more populated planets due to VARIOUS issues I would sooner die than get into again. Luckily, this meant the windows of the building weren’t renovated, decorated with metallic, rusted sills I could use for balance. I jumped onto the wall and kicked myself upward to grab onto one, then vaulted my way up each story until I landed on the roof, clouds of dust from my cumbersome exercises drifting upwards and draining into my nostrils.
“WHERE IS SHE GOING!?”
“…I’m not doing that. Too much effort.”
Surely those two could easily keep up with me. Wall vaulting posed little challenge with the right muscle and momentum. Nevertheless, once I landed on steady feet, I spotted her again floating in mid air from across the barren desert of concrete and crumbs—up close, though, her wrappings looked less like paper and more like decayed, dirty wrappings.
As long as the dirt didn’t come from anywhere truly horrid, touch wouldn’t be an issue. Flecks of dust floated into the air, and when I’d breathed one in the taste of doom and death stung my tongue like acid.
“Are we playing chase?” she said, though the way her voice ebbed and echoed in the air opened a pit of worry in me. “I’m very good at this, so I would be careful not to bet on uneven odds. If you slipped—that would be it.”
“You don’t know me,” I said and brought out my sword with a snap of my finger. “So instead of—“
I couldn’t even finish a sentence before she smiled, bandages curled around even her lips, and popped out of existence in a burst of dark green energy. Just who did she think she fooled!?
I glanced down and spotted her as she skipped down the sidewalk, arms swayed from side to side; Dori and Ale spoke with one another before they turned around and gave chase. Perhaps it was for the better those two remained below…
Not that I’d let myself be outdone. With a leap and a flip, I landed on the ground again and sprinted in the mummy’s direction. It didn’t take me long to overtake them, though when I managed to get close to her, she winked at me with those sickening bright red eyes and popped away again.
“Be alert!” I yelled to the others, who just about panted from what appeared to be only a small jog. “I believe she’s utilizing spatial magic to teleport over short distances. But she will not disorient us today!”
“I…I think it’s already…too late for that…” Dori gasped and knelt to the ground. I took another look around—the buildings had petered out due to the bridge in front of us, with a deep, murky river flowing underneath which stunk as though it remained the only bathroom on the planet. Where waste arrived to waste away, I supposed at the time.
On the other side rested the mummy. Right now, the bridge had pulled up to let a sizable boat through, and damn it all if I’d allow her to skip away like this.
“Ale! You must propel me upwards with the force of your blasts.” I braced my body, thoughts drifting back to our previous battles. His spells carried an odd explosive force—enough to throw anything in the air, with the right preparation. That, and I’d get the chance to observe his strange power up close.
Not that it was my priority. My mission remained paramount, yes…
He wheezed and straightened, somehow managing to not keel over like his companion. Hm! Com-pain-ion. “Wh, I…okay!?”
He took a kneel and pressed a hand to the ground, and from his palm lines crawled across the pavement until they formed a circular symbol under my feet. I focused and conjured a bubble of soul energy around me seconds before the blast, then jumped.
Ale boosted my forward momentum with his explosive spell, and with the protection my shield offered me, I glided over the river, smacked against the smooth walkway on the other side. I sliced my sword, smashed away with my barrier, and charged at our target before she could get the idea to teleport again.
Considering the nature of spatial magic, I stumbled into a fool’s move. But a fool I was, one she took advantage of.
She blitzed and blinked out of existence in the seconds it took for me to swing my blade, and I smacked against the ground face first. My mouth filled with dry, dusty gravel, and a hideous pain pulsed from my forehead down to my ears. Even when I managed to pull myself up, I could feel under my fingertips the slimy texture of blood, oozed from an unseen wound.
Behind me, she popped back into existence. I wouldn’t give her a chance to speak—I stuck out a leg and spun. She didn’t move in time to avoid it, kicked to the ground by my quick action.
I used the momentum to flip back to my feet, sword pointed at her head. She looked up at me, smile curled to her lips.
“Ah, impressive! Will you allow me the elbow room to lend you some applause?”
“Stop this nonsense,” I said and gripped the handle tighter. “You are hereby being taken into custody by the Maia Planetary Division. Any further attempts at resistance can and will make this an official arrest.”
If it had been Dori or Ale harmed, I would had been far less lenient. I would heal, though. I would always heal.
“Is that so?”
She began to crackle with energy, so I lunged to grab her wrist and teleport with her. When we snapped back into existence, she floated over the cargo ship moving through the river with me hanging by her wrist.
“No, I still so badly wish to test your potential!” She patted my head and, with a strength I never would have expected from her, flung me onto the tightly packaged crates.
“I’m sorry if this hurts, but I can resist the chance to join you all!” The next moment, she teleported away and back, dumping Dori and Ale in a similar fashion. Sprawled across the layer of boxes underneath our feet, we barely had time to react once she pointed at one of the crates. It began to glow green and shake, giving us seconds to scramble away before it broke into wood chips, which shot out and skewered anything in sight—luckily not us, but if we hadn’t dodged…
The mummy laughed and kicked her feet with the enthusiasm of a small child, but in her actions she armed herself with a truly alarming sense of power.
“There, now I’ve added a fun obstacle!” She twirled in the air and snapped her fingers. A scepter popped into existence and fell into her hands—a mossy, thick branch crowned with what was a bird’s nest at the top end. In the nest rested a crystal ball filled with a bright green, smoky gas which recurrently receded and expanded.
“Shall we begin?”