The Rising Sun: Episode 4 by J Hawk Page A

…
     
    __________
     
     
    Ion kept his hands tightly encased around the
pillar, his eyes streaming at the blast of the wind … which seemed
to come from almost all sides.
     
    What the bloody hell’s happening? His
feet having left the ground, his entire body was now hovering in
mid air, feet above the ground.
     
    He kept his arms tightly closed around the
pillar in the hallway, the only anchor to keep him from flying off
at the insane blow of the wind. Whether or not his eyes were
deceiving him, he knew not – but when he looked out the window
nearby across the wall, he thought he saw the sky outside flowing
down … as though they were flying up. The temple seemed to be
soaring upwards into the sky. Across the hall, Zardin kept one hand
locked around another pillar, the raging wind having lifted him off
his feet as well. His face was fixed over Ion, the sword in his
free hand still blazing.
     
    Ion felt something unravelling from the logic
of what was happening. The temple’s rising into the sky! He
thought, bewildered. Is this for real?
     
    __________
     
     
    Vestra felt a heavy daze seize her, as she
looked out the shattered, broken walls beyond the room she was
in.
     
    The temple’s flying?! She blinked, the
movement making her eyes water in the force of the gushing
wind.
     
    Her entire body lay pressed to the opposite
wall by the surge of the heavy wind, which seemed powerful enough
to rip the outer walls off. Her sword, now doused, lay clutched in
her right hand. Around her, plastered to the wall, were the
shattered remains of the robots she’d been fighting.
     
    The passageway that she had been in was now
half torn apart at the other end, and the sky could be seen, clear
and blue, with the meanest tinge of red with the onsetting
dusk.
     
    This can’t be happening! Once more,
she felt a part of the panic swerve in direction, and she hoped
everything was all right with Qyro and Ion.
     
    By the look of it, they were now progressing
higher and higher into the heavens… beyond the height of even the
tallest towers in some cities.
     
    __________
     
     
    Eight hundred metes …nine hundred metres…
     
    The temple had zoomed up to a mile above the
ground, and it continued to soar up. Relentless. Unyielding.
     
    __________
     
     
    “You madman!” bellowed Mantra, clinging hard
to the side of the wall with one hand clutching the outpost on it.
“You’ve gone senile!”
     
    “But you already knew that,” laughed Redgarn,
the force of the wind pressing him hard against the wall nearby.
His hair, tousled and wild, billowed about him, giving him a scary,
deranged look. “Now, let’s finish what we started … in style, shall
we?”
     
    __________
     
     
    One arm fastened tightly around the pillar,
Ion fended himself from Zardin’s maddening assault. Leaning from
the pillar next to him, his long black hair spinning wildly, the
Xeni unleashed a rapid torrent of strikes over Ion.
     
    The repeated clings of their blades
meeting was drowned by the hysteria raging all over them: the wind
flooded the place, senseless and brutal. The walls and the ceiling
seemed to shake uncannily. The windows all lay smashed, and large
chunks of concrete were sheared off the walls and pillars around
them, leaving concrete and glass debris to fly around inside.
Squinting to shield his eyes from the wreckage soaring around, Ion
fought off the savage fury of the creature nearby him.
     
    Zardin assailed him with a rain of strikes
and blows, his shining blade flying at the speed of light. Ion had
never imagined of facing such a scenario where his skill level was
forced to stretch beyond ordinary borders. Fending death off by
whiskers. Split second gaps. Keeping his mind concrete with focus,
he let his blade spin viciously, fighting off the storm of jabs,
strikes and slashes that Zardin sent at him, half smothering him.
The wreckage bellowing all over them seemed of no importance, for
the seat of all his attention was the