Page 54 of Shattered Silence

“Brother, you all right?” Lodan’s concerned voice came across the comm, but Enki was too far gone to be able to respond. Somewhere in the back of his consciousness, he became aware of frantic banging—Layla.

But he couldn’t do anything, because he was crippled by pain, and all he could see was…

The blinding flash of the the bomb as it decimated the Tharian capital, Marenja. The world turning into a sea of white fire, everything getting obliterated before his very eyes. The entire Seventeenth Division—all twelve of them—swallowed up by the inferno in an instant, turned to ash, gone. The terrible screams of the Tharians—men, women, younglings—as they were consumed by the white fire.

Enki’s skin and flesh melted, and the nanites went deep inside him, trying to preserve his most vital organs as the world around him turned into the deepest of the Nine Hells.

His shock quickly turned to rage. Cursed nobles. So quick to pull the trigger each and every time, because in the infinite Universe, a tiny planet like Tharos didn’t really matter, and the quickest way to guarantee submission was through force.

Enki and his brothers knew the rule of force all too well, but there was a limit to even their brutality.

This… this was destruction for the sake of destruction. Vindictive. Excessive. Deceitful.

Cruel.

Just like the nobles themselves.

Anger invaded every pore and cell of his burning body, and he swore he would take his blood-revenge on Lord Agarel Vethal and his entire Kaiin-cursed House even if it was the very last thing he did.

Because he would survive, and General Tarak would scour every section of this cursed planet until he found him, and then Enki would demand his blood-right.

Vethal obviously believed Enki would die along with the Seventeenth. He didn’t understand that the Empire’s own creations were even more monstrous than anything his poisonous mind could conceive of.

And the mind-wipe that was supposed to have kept them under control no longer had much of an effect.

He crawled forward on all fours, fighting excruciating agony, dragging himself through the wide halls of the Tharian High Palace, through ash and rubble and smoldering fires. He passed the charred and blackened bodies of the dead, barely able to distinguish them with his severely damaged eyes, remembering that they had once been graceful blue-skinned Tharians.

His anger became a howling vortex.

A wide stone pillar loomed before him, and he sank his claws into it, hauling himself to his feet. A soft sound reached his ears as he staggered across the floor—shallow breathing. Behind the pillar was a dying Tharian.

Her body was mostly intact. The pillar had shielded her from the force of the blast, but it couldn’t protect her from the heat.

She stared up at him in horror, her green eyes blazing with hatred. “M-monster,” she hissed, and the green glow leapt out of her eyes, rising up into the air like a vengeful spirit. “Your kind are going to destroy everything.”

Enki had no words. How did one apologize for the sins of an entire race? Especially with what he was about to do…

I am sorry.

Filled with disgust, he dropped to one knee and reached for the Tharian with his claws fully extended, because he was nothing more than a charred walking corpse himself, and his nanites desperately needed sustenance.

He had to survive, so he could take his revenge.

So he took what he needed from the Tharian, even as the green glow grew brighter and brighter, surrounding him.

Suddenly it was inside him.

His hands moved of their own volition, curling around his throat, squeezing, his claws digging into his very own burned flesh…

Kill yourself.

No! You will not control me!

His eyes snapped open, and he saw another face, this one pale and delicate—human.

“Don’t touch him,” she growled, looking at whoever was behind him. “He will be fine. Just give him time.”

There was power in her voice, because that sound alone dragged him out of his nightmare. She was fierce, concerned, protective… of him.

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