Page 62 of Interlude

“Lila would never forgive us,” Xavier agrees before waving his hands, his powers unaffected because the tree roots hadn’t gotten to him yet. The large fox rises into the air and hovers. “This is going to suck for him, but it’s better than leaving him behind. Come on,” he calls and starts to follow the path the fight went. I watch in amazement as the unconscious floating god bobs along behind him, occasionally smacking into a branch when the gaps are smaller than he can reasonably fit through.

“He’s going to be covered in bruises,” I mutter, taking up the rear to guard him. I pull out my gun again, almost certain there is nothing left alive behind us, but I don’t want to make an assumption and have it bite us in the ass.

“Better than dead,” is his flippant response, and I guess he isn’t wrong.

We pass an occasional dead Madovian, both of us putting laser shots into them just to be sure, but when we finally catch up to everyone, the two of us stop and stare at the sight in front of us. Saxon and Tirrian are crouched beside a whimpering Maxsim while Silac, back in his humanoid form, albeit covered in Madovian blood, is doing the same thing I did and making sure everyone is dead. It looks like a massacre. There are Madovian body parts strewn everywhere, some even hanging from trees, with their blood on almost every surface.

“Holy fuck,” I mutter, taking in the carnage.

“Aww, man, we missed it.” Xavier pouts. “I didn’t get to kill a single one.”

Saxon chuckles. “That’s because they got the drop on you. You snooze, you lose,” he jokes, and Xavier flips him off.

Tirrian rolls his eyes at the Vilaxian. “Don’t lie, we didn’t do this either.”

“Who did then?” Xavier asks, sounding as confused as I feel, but then I look around and notice people are missing.

“Where are Lila and Brannock?” I ask when I don’t see either of them.

“They did this,” Tirrian says as he strokes his hand over the lightning cat, trying to soothe him. He’s dripping blue blood from a significant gouge in his side.

“Just the two of them?” I can’t believe those two could cause this much mayhem.

“Maxsim went down, and Lila lost her shit, going into berserker mode, and Brannock followed her down the path. When all of the Madovian’s were dead and she turned her attention to us, he distracted her by making her chase him. I’m assuming he’s trying to get her to switch back out of berserker mode.” The dragon doesn’t seem too worried as he pulls a communicator out of a pocket of his leathers.

“She was going to kill us.” Silac sounds a little perturbed, but Xavier waves a hand.

“She wasn’t herself, and she will get better. Brannock says the older they are, the easier it is to switch off. They’ll either be fucking or fighting to cool the berserker mode. I’m personally hoping for fucking.”

I blink, stunned at what I’m hearing.

“You’re okay with your intimate fucking him?”

“Not only am I okay with it, I encouraged it. Poor guy hasn’t had a release in over seven hundred years. That has to be causing some pent-up emotions.”

Saxon scoffs at his friend, dragging our attention back over to the injured cat. “I’m going to return to the ship with Maxsim and get him to Link so he can heal him. I don’t know how long Lila is going to be, and he needs medical treatment now. Link should be able to patch him up until Lila can return and use her Celestian powers on him.”

We hear the dragon radio the ship and give them the details. There’s a reply, but I don’t pay attention because I notice the god start to twitch.

“Xavier,” I call to get the warlock’s attention. He turns back as Maxsim and Saxon disappear, leaving behind the dragon and the snake to help us find Lila and then her grandma.

He lowers the god to the ground, and we watch as his whole body shivers before he reforms into his humanoid form. Xavier waves a hand, and he’s clothed in one of those skirts he was wearing earlier.

“Ugh.” He groans, rolling into a sitting position before pulling up his knees and grabbing his head. “What the fuck happened?”

“It wasn’t just the Madovians, they had Nelecs too,” I explain, and he hisses aggressively.

“They took out you and the warlock before we even noticed they were in the trees,” Silac explains.

“Lila?” Zeydan’s head whips around as he looks for her and struggles to his feet when he doesn’t see her. I put out a hand to help him but stop myself, cursing the effect of my fur. Silac takes my place, steadying the god.

“She’s fine. We’ll catch up with them soon, I’m certain,” Tirrian assures him.

“She and the Aaz’axian are just working off the aggression.” Xavier winks suggestively, and I can see the exact moment the god comprehends.

“Ah. Well, good. Okay, let’s go, it isn’t far.” He stumbles slightly and groans, grabbing his head again, but he leads us away from the site of such cruel destruction. I heard rumors and tales about the Aaz’axian forces, but seeing it certainly hammers home how deadly they are. It’s no wonder the Una’s race was decimated in their war.

We follow the god, and while he said it wasn’t far, it’s still at least an hour of us stumbling through the forest, which seems to get even thicker the closer we get to the middle.

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