36. Currents Convulsive
Currents Convulsive
As the Palace of Radiant Clouds continued to materialize in the sky above, it felt like the fabric of reality itself was beginning to unravel.
The streets of Pacific Cove were beginning to take on the same liminal, ethereal quality as the Palace itself, almost like the two realms were being merged or something.
Dustin’s nose was basically pressed to the windshield of the Cadillac as Chris barreled through town; no destination in mind other than somewhere that would get them closest to the center of this madness.
“We need a fucking gameplan, fast,” Chris said, his eyes locked onto the road ahead as rain started pouring, and buildings flowed between a solid and translucent state, “there won’t be any explaining this shit away if this goes any further!”
“Qin Shi Huang is definitely waiting for us up there. He’s more powerful than we’ve ever seen him, and he has a ten-foot-tall body made of stone.
Charging up there is absolutely a suicide mission…
” Dustin said, still focused on the palace he could faintly see taking shape in the clouds, “but we have no other choice. We’re gonna have to face him head on,”
From the backseat, Chloe, James, and Bailey sat in resolute silence. They could offer no dissent, because the truth was just as obvious to them as it was to Dustin.
There was no clever plan, or last-minute strategy that was gonna get them out of this. Every moment since they were pulled into the Palace for the first time had been leading up to this confrontation, and they weren’t going down without one hell of a fight.
“If we get to the top of the church belltower, we might have a straight shot up to the palace from there,” Chloe clung onto the passenger’s seat in front of her as Chris whipped around a corner, “it’s the highest point in town,”
“Good a plan as any,” Chris nodded, “ladies and gentlemen, please secure all seatbelts and hold the fuck on. I’m putting this bitch on two wheels,”
With that, he slammed the gas and throttled the car forward, somehow faster than he’d already been going, making a direct beeline for Blood of Life Ministries.
It had been quite a while since Dustin had been to church, but the old stone building was just as overbearing as he remembered; basically a literal fucking cathedral in the middle of this suburb, sticking out like the monument to greed that it likely originally was.
From what he knew, it started off as a local branch of the much larger international Blood of Life megachurch, but in recent years the Nakajima Family took control of it, and things were allegedly different. According to his mom at least.
But all that mattered right now, was scaling to the highest part of it and launching themselves into the sky to fight an immortal god-emperor…
If only Bible study could’ve prepared him for this shit.
As the group stood there in the parking lot, huddled under Chloe’s almost comically large clear plastic umbrella, they were so transfixed on the tower and figuring out how to climb it that they didn’t notice the church doors opening and a middle-aged woman squinting at them from the inside.
“Dustin? Dustin Ying is that you?” the woman called out and Dustin instinctively froze, completely unprepared for the idea that people would be inside the building at this late hour, “it’s me!
Mary Nakajima, remember from when you boys were little and…
wait, is that Christian!? Oh thank God you’re safe and sound!
We were here getting ready to head out for this evening’s search party, but then we heard the emergency storm warning on WFRK and decided to shelter here,”
“Oh, um yeah, we just found him and…” Dustin didn’t even have a chance to finish his hastily constructed lie before a terrifying blast of purple lightning surged down from above and struck the belltower, resulting in a thunderous boom so loud he had to cover his ears.
And then it happened again.
And again.
Volley after volley of divine fury rocked the building until the masonry cracked, buckled… and collapsed.
Mrs. Nakajima screamed as stone, metal, and stained glass crashed down on top of her, clearly about to crush her in an instant.
Had it not been for Chloe and Bailey.
The umbrella now lay abandoned on the asphalt, as the two girls stood over Mrs. Nakajima’s crouched body, their hands held high and their veins shining with white and yellow light.
Giant chunks of rock and metal rebar hovered above them, shielding them from the falling glass and protecting Mrs. Nakajima from any harm.
About ten other members of the congregation rushed outside, most of whom Dustin remembered from his childhood.
Mr. and Mrs. Lennox who owned the deli. Ms. Wasupon from the secondhand store, Dustin and Bailey helped sort donations for community service extra credit. Mr. Parker who let Colorful Trauma use his studio space to record their first mixtape.
All of them were staring in a mixture of disbelief, wonder, and abject terror as Chloe and Bailey gently let the debris down, smoke from the lightning assault still heavy in the air.
“What in God’s name…” Ms. Wasupon’s trembling voice started, but she clearly couldn’t find the words to continue. James came over and helped Mrs. Nakajima stand on shaky legs, just as Pastor Nakajima threw his blazer over her trembling shoulders.
“It would take so much more time to explain than we have right now,” Chris said, running a stressed hand through his soaked overgrown hair, “I know the belltower is fuck… I mean uh, destroyed, sorry ‘holy ground’ or whatever. But the safest place is still inside the building. That thing up there? It wants us, and we’re gonna go punch it in the face,”
“Angels,” Mrs. Nakajima’s eyes were wide, taking stock of the five of them, standing together in the rain as their rings caught the reflection of lightning in the distance, “here to protect us on Judgement Day,”
“Not far off,” Dustin mumbled under his breath, before speaking up, “but Chris is right. Once we’re out of here, you won’t be targeted again. Just stay inside until this is all over,”
The congregation exchanged worried glances, but one by one they filed inside until only Mrs. Nakajima and her husband were left.
“If that’s really the Devil up there… kick his ass,” Pastor Nakajima said, clapping a strong hand on Dustin’s shoulder.
“Oh, we will. Just like… keep this between us, yeah?” Chris replied with a wink. Pastor Nakajima made a gesture like he was zipping his lips, before ushering his wife back into the building, closing the doors behind them and, by the sound of it, bolting them.
“They better not snitch,” Chloe said, crossing her arms and squinting through the torrential downpour, “I’m not trying to explain this to my mother,”
“Same,” everyone said in unison, before Bailey looked around at the debris and stated the obvious, “without the tower though, how are we supposed to get up there? I don’t think my elevator trick can get us up that high,”
Dustin thought for a moment, but the more he looked at just how high up the Palace was hovering, he knew none of their abilities would be sufficient alone.
Wait… not alone.
But maybe…
“James, baby, I’m gonna ask you to push yourself harder than you ever have,” Dustin began, and James immediately snapped to attention the moment he started speaking, “I need a tree. A fucking BIG one, right under our feet. Can you manage that?”
“Sir yes sir baobei sir,” James replied, mocking a salute as the veins in his arms charged with electric green light.
“Perfect. Chloe, the metal from the tower. Bring it with us, and brace yourself. I know you hate heights,”
Chloe nodded, reaching out with her powers to suspend the metal in the air as the asphalt beneath them cracked and tore apart. Massive vines erupted through it, twisting upward into a spiraling base of thick bark and leaves as the group ascended on the biggest tree anyone had ever fucking seen.
It wasn’t long before they’d completely surpassed the height of the now extinct belltower, but James couldn’t keep it up infinitely. Not only did his power have limits, but the tree would quickly become structurally unsustainable if they pushed it much farther.
“Alright James, you did great!” Dustin screamed over the whipping wind, holding onto the branches around them, “everybody get in close! This is gonna be the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever done!”
Without hesitation, the group huddled around Dustin, feeling the immediate temperature drop as his powers activated.
The onslaught of rain gathered around them, pushing them even closer together before swirling like an airborne whirlpool, launching them even higher into the air.
The higher they climbed, the more Dustin had to push down the backflips his stomach was currently doing, focusing more on adding more and more water to this insane spinning deathtrap before he dropped them all to their deaths by accident.
“Alriiiight!” he screamed out, voice sounding like he was on the world’s worst roller coaster, “Chloe, the metal! We need a place to land!”
Chloe was clinging on to him, her nails nearly snapping from how tightly she was digging into his shoulders, but her veins were still beaming as the metal debris collected just ahead of them; sturdy in the air like a hovering platform.
They hit it with a very wet crash landing as Dustin finally released control of his element, panting and completely drained of energy, but thankfully alive.
They were fully in the clouds now, unable to even see the town beneath them anymore. But the Palace was clearer than ever; its silhouette repeatedly illuminated by flashes of violet electricity arcing around them.
“Alright, final push!” Dustin put his hand on Chris’s back, “bro, I need you to launch us forward like this is Midnight Club Dub Edition and you’re trying to cross the finish line. Bailey, the Palace is close enough now for you to pull some rocks to protect us from getting fried up here!”
Chris grinned like Dustin had just given him the greatest honor of his life, his eyes lighting up red as he cracked his knuckles.
“Let’s fucking go,”
He braced himself, hanging his open hands behind him.
They sparked a few times, before exploding with an outward eruption of flames so big that it looked like a rocket launch.
Chloe forced some metal to snake its way around their legs, keeping them firmly planted as they went flying through the heavens like a bat out of hell.
Bailey did just as Dustin commanded, forcefully ripping chunks of shining moonrock away from the Palace exterior as they approached, coating the front of their makeshift hoverboard like a battering ram just in time for it to deflect a lightning bolt that would’ve ended their battle before it started.
It seemed like an impossible task, but a few moments later they were crashing through the outer walls of the Palace, being thrown to the ground from the sheer force of it all, and rolling to a stop in front of the very pentagram-shaped altar where they first found their rings.
That altar… and the hulking, antlered stone body of Qin Shi Huang himself.
“The strength it took to arrive here is formidable,” his voice sounded like a chorus of thousands speaking in unison, some within the room, others booming in the clouds outside, “I am impressed! A pity to be struck down here. This new empire will need enforcers with such grit. Such tenacity. Perhaps I will harvest the rings from your corpses and bond them to my faithful,”
“Ayo shut the FUCK UP!” Chris immediately snapped, rising to his feet and exhaling a breath of flame from his nose as he stared up at the monster the emperor had become, “you used my body like a god damn puppet, you forced me to almost kill my brother, and now you think you’re just gonna talk shit to our faces?
Enough of this, we’re ending it right now,”
The stone mask of Qin Shi Huang’s face cracked ever so slightly as his features morphed into a condescending smirk.
“On that my dear descendant, we can agree,”