BOOK 1 - CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 16

After Talvish and his son secured permission for Johnny’s joyride— an easier task than Johnny had anticipated— the trio made their way to the stables. A pair of additional guards escorted them, silent and ever watchful, until at last Johnny stood face to face with the Voyager.

The stables were a mechanical marvel in disguise. Cables and pulleys crisscrossed the walls like a spider’s web spun in steel, anchored into beams and floors with thick metal bolts. As they stepped inside, Johnny noticed a particular spot on the floor. It was suspiciously clean, the wood there free of hay and dust, a pale patch where the sun hadn’t touched in a while.

The guards took their positions wordlessly, flanking either side of the stable. The one on the left moved first, gripping a coarse rope and giving it a sharp yank. With a groan of strained wood and shifting mechanisms, the clean floor split apart along hidden seams. A trapdoor lifted, revealing a deep chamber beneath. There, nestled in shadow and silence, lay the Voyager— untouched, pristine, and buried beneath the very floor they stood on.

Johnny blinked, momentarily stunned. He’d expected the vessel to be baking outside in the sun, maybe draped with a tarp at best. But this—this was care. This was reverence. It was impressive, especially given how little the Alliance understood the machine.

Still, a new worry pricked at him. How had they managed to lower it that far down in the first place? And more importantly, how did they intend to bring it back up?

The second guard stepped forward— an enormous Rhino Demihuman, his gray skin taut beneath a uniform that looked like it was one flex away from ripping at the seams. As if answering Johnny’s unspoken question, the Rhino grabbed one of the main pulleys and began to pull. The thick rope groaned under tension. His breath came heavy, snorting through his nostrils, muscles straining as the platform began to rise.

Not fast enough.

The first guard joined him, grabbing a secondary rope and adding his strength. Together they heaved in rhythm, and the Voyager lifted, rising from its hiding place like a relic pulled from the earth, glinting faintly in the shafts of stable-light that filtered through the rafters.

Johnny couldn’t help but grin and neither could Talvish, the man stared at the Voyager in awe. “Pretty cool, huh?” Johnny said.

“Well, I’d say it is something for sure.” Talvish replied looking at the Voyager more intensely.

“Before we go. I need to secure the arsenal of weapons I had Albert produce.”

“What kind of weapons?” Talvish asked, now even more curious, if a tad anxious at the mention of weapons.

“Come, I’ll show you.” Johnny simply said as he opened the rear doors and trunk. Talvish quickly followed after Johnny. Zegarto said his thanks and goodbyes to his fellow guards as they returned to their posts in a haste before joining Johnny and Talvish at the trunk.

Both father and son gasped and murmured at the sight of Johnny’s arsenal. Seated in the trunk were two SMGs, an extra pistol to the one Johnny carried, a few grenades, smoke bombs, and flash grenades. After the canyon fiasco Johnny knew he had to make sure he had adequate firepower moving forward.

“Like what you see?” Johnny joked at Talvish and Zegarto.

The young guard actually nodded, his eyes held a familiarity Johnny didn’t expect as he reached for the SMG. He let Zegarto pick it up and handle, the safety fortunately was on. “The Wardens and their direct subordinates…I’ve seen some of them handle these type of weapons.” Zegarto said, nodding his head as he ran his fingers across the length of the barrel, “Warden Chloe is almost all like this.”

Johnny raised a brow at that, curious what that meant but not enough to ask. “Well, be careful with that, it can put a hole in your skull if you aren’t careful.” Zegarto gulped and placed it right back with the pile while Johnny went around sorting the weapons into convenient places on his person and within the Voyager.

“Alright, that should take care of things.” Johnny said, dusting his fingers as he hopped right in place behind the driver’s seat. It’s been too long. “Before you two get in, help me out with the stable doors?”

“Sure.” The father and son spoke in unison.

Johnny turned the Voyager on letting out a low hum. “Albert, start mapping the surroundings. I don’t want to get lost.” Albert beeped an affirmative in response and Johnny began to drive out between the open stable doors.

Talvish and Zegarto swung the stable doors shut with a solid thud before climbing into the back seats. Johnny glanced up at them through the rearview mirror, one brow arched in amusement. “You might want to buckle up.”

The two stared at the straps hanging at their sides with mild suspicion, their confusion plain. A world without automobiles had never needed seatbelts. Johnny smirked and reached for his own, smoothly pulling it across his chest and clicking it into place. “Like this. Shoulder to hip. It locks in.”

Zegarto fumbled with his for a moment, then helped his father figure it out with a click. Talvish tugged at the strap with a frown. “What are these even for?”

“Vehicles like this move very fast, dangerously so if you're not used to it. The Voyager is the fastest thing on this planet, I promise you that.” Johnny’s tone turned mock-serious. “If something goes wrong and you’re not buckled in, you’ll fly right out the window. Like a catapult.”

That didn’t seem to fully land, so Johnny grinned and said, “Here, watch this.”

He floored the accelerator.

The engine roared to life like a waking beast, gravel and dust exploding behind the tires as the Voyager tore down the dirt path of the settlement. Wind howled through the frame, making the canvas top flutter as the scenery outside blurred into streaks of tan and green. Then Johnny slammed the brakes.

The entire vehicle jolted. The shriek of tires carved into the earth as the sudden stop threw them forward— only to be snapped back by their seatbelts. The seatbelt belts locked tight against their chests with a loud clack and the headrests caught the backs of their skulls in a cushioned thud.

Zegarto burst out in half-shouted laughter, gripping the edge of his seat. “Hahahah! Woah! That was… that was—!”

“Exhilarating,” Talvish gasped, wide-eyed, “but absolutely terrifying.”

Johnny chuckled and shook his head duo. “Exactly. That’s why you keep your seatbelt on. Because if the world outside doesn’t kill you…” He patted the dashboard. “This thing might.”

With that Johnny took to the wild properly, exploring with a freedom and sense of safety he hadn’t had in days. It was a much needed break as despite all the preparations he’d secretly gotten to with Albert, he couldn’t say he was exactly eager to go about saving the world, much less two worlds.

Driving freely across Magmasphere or rather, Nsukka returned that sense of liberty though. The land was lumpy, full of steep faces and almost naturally occuring ramps and speed bumps Johnny absolutely violated as he drove. He tried including some driving tutorials, lessons on what the mini stunts he was performing were called but it was rather difficult over the sounds of Talvish and Zegarto’s excited screams as they held on for dear life.

All the excitement made Johnny grin and laugh like he hadn’t since he’d retired from Banzai Bangers.

Johnny drove up to the edge of a wide canyon that cleaved across the land from the northeast to the southeast, a massive scar in the earth that hummed with the distant sound of wind. But what truly caught his breath wasn’t the canyon, it was what lay just ahead.

For the first time since arriving in Nsukka, Johnny saw a forest.

Towering deciduous trees stretched toward the sky like ancient pillars, their emerald canopies whispering with the wind. The forest was lush, alive in a way that made the rest of Nsukka feel dry and barren by comparison. A riot of birdsong filled the air, light and melodic, a welcome contrast to the constant shrieks and growls of predators he'd grown used to. Some of the birds swooped above the Voyager, their bright feathers flashing in the sun like shards of stained glass. Creatures that looked suspiciously like squirrels— though with more limbs than seemed reasonable— darted along the trunks and disappeared into burrows or nests.

Johnny grinned as the Voyager rumbled across the uneven forest floor, its suspension jolting with each root and dip. The trees eventually began to thin, the dense foliage giving way to dry yellow grass and open skies. Soon enough, the terrain returned to the familiar savannah but not without new landmarks.

Far ahead, the land began to rise. A sheer rock face loomed across their path, the first of a mountainous incline stretching northward. Carved into its base was a yawning cavern, its shadow swallowing the light like a silent warning or invitation.

Between them and that cliff, the land rolled into a series of natural mounds and hills smoothed by time and wind, forming a bumpy, uneven plain right up to the canyon’s edge. Johnny didn’t even think of slowing down.

He gunned the accelerator, launching the Voyager into a series of sharp dips and airborne bumps. The tires kissed the ground only to launch skyward again as he put his new found liberty and zeal to work. Zegarto shrieked with each jolt, his hands white-knuckled on the headrest in front of him.

“Woohoo!” Johnny shouted over the roar of the engine. “Aren’t you two having fun?!”

“Fun!? Fun? No!” Talvish screamed, white knuckling the handle bars with his eyes squeezed shut, only stealing an occasional glance as they soared ever briefly.

On the other hand, his son looked like he was at least having some fun, if the shaken look was anything to go on. Johnny watched him gulp as they landed from another leap, he hurriedly spoke right after,“Say Johnny, how about some of that drifting you mentioned earlier? Uh these are good but I’m not sure how much more my dad’s heart can take.”

Johnny cackled with joy, “Oh, Talvish will be fine and if you’re asking for a drift then…you’d better be ready for some speed.”

Eying the cliff edge, Johnny’s inner daredevil creeped out with a single dangerous thought. The Voyager lurched forward, zooming towards the cliff, its engine roaring over Johnny’s cackles and the father-son duo’s screams. They shrieked as Johnny yanked the wheel to the left at the last possible second. The Voyager whipped around, its end scratching up dirt as he drifted along the edge of the canyon wall.

Johnny continued to screech its wheels through the dirt, making a tight, dusty circle along the canyon’s edge, daring the worst…until it happened.

An explosion rocked the Voyager, violently throwing it out of the tight drift and sending Johnny’s heart leaping into his throat. “What was that?” Johnny asked, trying not to show his panic as he drove against the momentum pushing the Voyager two wheels off the ground. Looking in the rearview Johnny saw a small crater was left behind by whatever caused the explosion.

“No clue.” Talvish said with an exasperated sigh, seemingly happy just to have stopped moving.

“Incoming!” Zegarto yelled, pointing at a literal fireball scorching its way towards them from the clifftops.

Johnny pushed forward and swerved hard as the fireball landed on his left. The blast sent the jeep up on its right wheels, tossing them over the canyon wall. Johnny didn’t panic as he regained control, setting the jeep back on all fours, saving them all from plunging into the canyon below.

Unfortunately, the path of the jeep had Johnny heading right for a pile of rocks. He manager slowed the jeep down just enough when it impacted didn’t seriously hurt anyone. The Voyager was now stuck with its front wheels propped up on the rocks with the rear tires hanging over the canyon walls.

“Everyone out!” Johnny yelled as another fireball sailed their way. Everyone undid their belts, bailing out of the Voyager. The father and son took shelter behind the rock formation. Along with Johnny as the fireball barely missing the Voyager. Leaving a cloud of dust behind.

A voice spoke beyond the dust cloud. “Oh Radiant Champion, won’t you come out and fight us? You have nowhere to run!”

“Johnny? Where are we? I…I…we shouldn’t be here.” Zegarto shook his head in confusion, he looked around and when he laid eyes on his father his face blossomed with anger “You…what did you do to me? Dad! What did you…what did you do!”

What the heck is going on now? Johnny wondered, looking between the two and then at the Voyager teetering over the canyon edge.

To his surprise Talvish responded with calm, “I had no choice, son. When this world falls, we will have eternal life. You, Jana and I. A family!”

Jana? The nurse? In hindsight it made sense. All three were lion Beastkin.

Talvish tried to grab ahold of his son but Zegarto fought back, fully incensed and still confused. The two fell back, grappling and pushing against each other. Johnny could only watch the two with a deepening sense that he’d been set up. The fireballs, that voice calling out for the Radiant Champion…how easy it was to get permission to go out of the settlement.

“You set me up, Talvish?” The man was far too busy fighting his son to offer a response. Johnny cursed under his breath as a rain of fire fell around them. Keeping his head low he ran into the Voyager to grab a few weapons, snatching smoke bombs and grenades from where he’d stashed them.

In his periphery he glimpsed a look at those coming after him. Men, demihumans and some uglies cloaked in deep purple and armed to the teeth. The Devouring Darkness. Orion and even Jana had told Johnny of them and there was no doubt this was indeed the enemy creeping out of caverns and from the thick of the very forest he’d driven through.

“Albert, I need you to gun down any of the enemies that get too close.” Albert’s response was an immediate whir of machinery, the mounted gun atop the roof still functioned despite the odd angle and Albert set its bullets loose.

Screams and shrieks of pain followed as Johnny made his way back to the tussling father son duo. Johnny’s first act was getting Zegarto away from his father. He yanked the man off his son and pinned him down with his legs.

“Zegarto run!” Johnny yelled, tossing a smoke bomb over the rock they crouched behind. It exploded with a bang, sending thick smoke billowing several feet up in the air.

“No, it's my job to protect you and…he used that! I won’t run away now, you’re the Radiant Champion…if I let you die then, then this world really ends!”

Talvish broke free of Johnny’s pin and rushed at his son. Zegarto was ready this time and dodged away, quickly using his father’s momentum against him to take his legs out and slam him against the coarse earth.

“I did all this to protect you. You need to come with me.” Talvish tried to reason with him, “Radiant Champion or not, there is no saving Nsukka, we’re done! The Loathing One has already won, and no one wants to admit it! It's only a matter of time so…join me! Serve th—!”

“I will not!” Zegarto rebuked, his voice choked with what Johnny knew were tears.

Johnny wanted to help, pay attention to their struggle but he had his own and they were all making a beeline for him.

Six goblins with crude bows and daggers busted out of the thinning smoke, their bows nocked and arrows sent flying even as they ran towards him. It was easy to dodge the arrows, many didn’t even reach him, but the goblins wielding daggers would. They roared, mouth slobbering as they preemptively swung around the daggers but all for naught as three fine shots sent bullets through their heads.

Johnny shifted his aim to those with the arrows and as he did, he saw three Hobglobin Shamans, their staffs glowing an eerie light as they locked eyes with him and smiled sinisterly. Fireballs surged at the tip of their staff but rather than duck away he Johnny dashed to the side, sprinting around the Shaman’s and forcing their aim at him while he executed the archer goblins with another round of shots.

Three fireballs raged towards him like mini-suns. Johnny threw himself to the ground, hurriedly pulling out a live grenade just as the smoke cleared completely. Behind the Shamans were six even greater monsters. Armoured Ogres roared as Albert pelted them with bullets and Trolls larger, wider and angrier than anything Johnny had ever faced in this world pulled giant rocks from the earth with ease and magic.

Johnny lobbed the grenade right in their midsts, knowing it would barely be enough to— Boom!

Blood showered as bits of the Hobgoblin Shaman exploded into the air. The dust cloud that formed didn’t get a chance to settle before two huge rocks burst out of it, soaring over like guided missles to crush Johnny where he lay.

Johnny cursed under his breath as it soared, there was only one way to dodge such an attack. Push forward!

He kicked out the dirt with explosive force, desperately dashing forward and under the soaring rocks all while his heart pounded in his chest at the other dangers he was rushing towards. The rocks landed thunderously behind him and once they did, he came to a screeching halt, barely dodging the grasp of one Ogre as he turned around to flee again.

Escape was not to be had this time as the Ogre swiftly grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and pulled Johnny off his feet to its tusk protrusive face. It roared at Johnny, slobber and the most horrid stench incenced Johnny to quick thinking. He unclipped a grenade from his side, removed the pin and shoved the explosive down the Ogre’s throat with little fear for his own arm getting bitten off.

It choked, forgetting about Johnny as it tried to grab at the thing lodged in its throat but it was too late. The ogre blew up into a bloody mess of flesh and bone as Johnny broke away from it.

“Pathetic! Must I do everything myself?” The voice the taunted Johnny from the start roared again, revealing himself from the caverns as an orc filled with murderous intent and the magical means to see them through.

Johnny switched out his pistol with an SMG at the sight of his approach, firing mercilessly into the charging orc only for every shot to be deflected by a magical shield. Albert joined in, finished making swiss cheese of two trolls Johnny’s companion AI swerved the mounted gatling guns and pelted the orc without end.

The bullets only ricocheted all over the place, the orc’s magical shield impenetrable, “Albert stop! It’s making things worse!”

Damn it. I need another plan!

Johnny caught glimpse of Zegarto creeping up to the orc with a short sword in hand. Talvish was lying, groaning in pain somewhere near the Voyager but none of that mattered, lion beastkin or not, Zegarto was going to get himself killed fighting this magic orc.

An idea struck just in time and Johnny yelled out a warning to the young guard, “Zegarto, cover your eyes!” Johnny tossed a flash grenade. The blinding bang left both him and the orc staggering. The orc, disoriented, raised his shield and stumbled around blindly. Zegarto rushed in, but his blade couldn’t penetrate the magic. He kicked the orc off-balance, buying time.

“My eyes.” The orc screamed, running around blindly.

Johnny stumbled around to the other side of the Voyager pulling Zegarto back with him as he lobbed a grenade at the recovering orc— only for the fiend to catch and hurl it right back.

“Look out!” Johnny tackled Zegarto as the grenade exploded. Shrapnel tore into Zegarto’s shoulder and cheek as they fell away.

A head splitting ache scoured through Johnnys head as he began to pick himself up, distinctly aware of the rage of the Voyager’s weapons against the cries of murder chanting cultists.

“No!”

Zegarto’s even sharper cry tore Johnny out of the haze. Talvish had taken the brunt of the blast, having nowhere to run when…when he chased to save Zegrato the same time Johnny did. The shrapnel punctured through him.

“No.”

“It can’t happen like this.” Talvish gasped, watching his wound bleed out. “I can’t die like this. My family needs me, you need me, son.”

“Talvish…” Johnny murmured, the man had set them up and yet, he couldn’t help feeling sympathetic. He was delusional about his actions, excusing them for the sake of his family and Johnny felt that in his heart.

Talvish picked something out of his pocket, a sort of void stone. It was a crystal gem of deep, pulsating purple colours that radiated a toe-curling energy. The hair on Johnny’s neck stood as Talvish quickered the gem towards his mouth.

“Talvish, no! Don’t!”

The moment his tongue touched the gem it became a gaseous mist he breathed in. Zegarto and Johnny watched in horror as Talvish convulsed and then erupted with that terrible energy.

Zegarto broke out in sobs, crying a prayer to Radiant One, asking her to strengthen his heart against grief, for there was nothing he knew to save his father.

Before Johnny could respond, a violent burst of energy erupted from Talvish’s body— raw, unnatural, and screaming with void essence. The shockwave knocked Zegrato off his feet, sending him sprawling into the dirt. A high-pitched hum filled the air, vibrating in Johnny’s bones like a siren of doom.

Then Talvish moved.

He shot upright with inhuman speed, his limbs jerking as if pulled by unseen strings. Johnny's eyes widened in disbelief as Talvish lunged toward his son, seizing Zegrato by the shoulders. The older man’s eyes were pitch-black now, swirling with the same void substance that pulsed through his veins like molten ink.

“No—!” Zegrato gasped, thrashing beneath his father’s iron grip. “Father, stop—please!”

But Talvish didn’t stop. With monstrous strength, he began to tear into his own son. His teeth elongated into fangs that ripped flesh, fingernails grew into claws that stabbed and shredded as muscles bulged to unnatural sizes. Zegrato screamed— a choked, gurgling cry that echoed across the canyon edge, sharper than any dying cultist. His voice cracked with pain and betrayal as his pleas went ignored— there was no recognition in Talvish’s eyes only hunger, only hate.

A fever ran through Johnny, he felt the tips of his fingers, the grains between the grain of his fingertips. The violent air batting against his skin, impure and infected by that energy. He inhaled, standing up to his feet, hands clenched around his pistol and SMG as a voice echoed from his head.

“Yes, my Champion, this is the injustice of evil. The all consuming corruption of the Loathing One, his touch is vile and you must act against it. Now.”

Johnny felt his vision narrow at Talvish who threw the remnants of his son to the side, his corrupt transformation was still underway. His skin peeled back, dissolved into dark tendrils that coiled around his writhing, bulging frame. He grew to grotesque, uneven proportions as the void energy devoured him from the inside, stripping away his senses and reshaping him into a monstrous creature of horned, jagged and pulsating acidic bile of other worldly energy.

“You must purify his soul, or lose him to the Loathing One forever.”

Johnny charged, the energy that had been boiling in his blood exploded out of his pores with a cleansing wave of power. Radiant Energy. He felt renewed in every manner that mattered, his body felt more than young, it felt supernaturally superior. He felt powerful and knew he was.

Conventional bullets did nothing to the monster Talvish had become, even Albert’s gatling barrage barely stunned the creature. Only radiant weapons will work. This was an understanding Johnny had just looking at it, sensing the vile power that it reeked but also from having the Radiant One by his side now, he knew his power as her Champion would be the only thing capable of stopping this monster.

And so, without stopping once to think about it, moving fully by an instinct guided by the Radiant One’s presence in him Johnny infused his pistol and SMG with divine light, took aim and fired into the beast. It shrieked in agonizing horror, flinching away from Johnny as it skirted around the dirt canyon in fright.

Johnny gave chase, ignoring the cultists, goblins and trolls that arrived as reinforcement. He moved too fast for any of them to touch him and those who did got bashed aside, set ablaze as the Radiant One’s holy flame set their evil hearts ablaze from within.

His singular purpose was the beast and powered by that vile energy, it moved just fast enough to keep Johnny on his feet. Everything and person it touched began to degrade, its own footsteps oozed death, decay and evil. with the beast turning everything it touched into nothingness.

He fired what round he had left at the beast, wounding it once more. It began to slow but still wasn’t going down. Agitated Johnny used the nantites to produce knives with radiant infused energy throwing them at the beast. That was all Johnny needed with the beast impaled with daggers. It fell crawling from the radiant energy.

Johnny ran up the downed beast slamming his fist where his heart was and with the guidance of the Radiant One over him, he slowly drained out the corrupt power, purifying it within his own body. It burned in his veins, but it was worth it. Talvish slowly turned back to his normal self his wounds completely healed.

Johnny gasped, his heart pounding in his chest as he stumbled away. His head spun as the Radiant Energy drained from his muscles, from his veins. He felt the most lethargic he’d ever been, his legs trembled until he fell on his butt.

Talvish stood there in shock wondering what had happened. “Why am I still alive?”

“I somehow purified your soul. I saved you.” Johnny said.

“What happened to my son?” He spoke recalling what he did before he crumpled, sobbing, then finally losing consciousness.

Johnny knelt beside him, drained.

Then— voices.

From the rocks, seven cultists emerged. The magic orc from earlier snickered. “I told you he’d wear himself out.”

Albert fired, but the leader’s shield blocked every bullet.

“Tie the old man up,” the orc commanded one of the cultists. “We’ll use him later.”

The rest swarmed Johnny. He fought, but exhausted and wounded, he was beaten down. The leader grabbed him by the collar, his shit eating grin at its widest, “Lord Manipulator says hello and welcome to Nsukka. Sorry your stay couldn’t be longer.”

Johnny wanted to say something, yell something, kick back but held up like a sack of dirty laundry all he could do was watch as one cultist passed the orc a knife. As the cold edge of the blade lined up against Johnny’s throat, he shut his eyes and cursed Brandon for bringing him to this world.

Pain like no other ignited in his throat as it was slit not a second after. The orc cackled as Johnny’s blood spurt in his face. Johnny fought to hold onto something, his murderer’s arm if not life but that too slipped away as the orc tossed him over the edge of the canyon. Gravity pulled him to final doom.

As darkness closed in, Johnny felt a sudden weight catch him before he hit the bottom.