The Harbinger put a massive golden foot down into the East River and the water suddenly started boiling violently from the heat, a column of steam blasting upwards, blurring the lower part of the giant's body.
Below on the opposite side of the river, END battle ships were now forming a battle formation, captains barking orders to their crews. Sirens blared as the deck guns and ammunition came alive and swung into position.
When the Harbinger submerged both feet into the river, the water only came up to its waist. Somehow it still towered over the Brooklyn bridge, like a living mountain. There was a great aura of heat emanating from its golden body.
The moment I'd spotted the Harbinger approaching I'd started running…away, back to the other end of the bridge. Away from my comrades.
The Bravo Null squad members had shouted my name but I didn't stop. Couldn't.
Harbingers were bad news, especially to me.
And the fact I had a personal history with this one…
I was certain this was the one that had controlled the Hollowbounds in the helicopter and made them start tearing each other apart.
Plus I couldn't let that thing make me start hurting my friends. Not again.
I could already feel that cold presence coiling up, whispering to me.
"Quiet, you." I told it and kept running.
I wondered if Hylla and the others were okay. This thing had fought them before coming here and the fact it was not dead meant the END soldiers were beaten.
A sudden loud 'boom' vibrated the bridge, startling me so much that I stumbled to the railing of the bridge.
END navy had started attacking.
Barrages of missiles followed by high intensity machine guns streaked through the air straight at the Harbinger, point blank. It was a bombardment.
Explosions overshadowing other explosions, the sheer amount of firepower was enough to cover the Harbinger from sight in a mass of fire and smoke.
Could this actually kill it? This was a much better response than the last time we'd encountered a Harbinger.
But I already knew it could never be that easy.
From within the churning explosions, I saw the massive golden hand of the Harbinger rise, unscathed, pointing at the fleet and…
BOOOOOOOM!
A quarter of the fleet got obliterated within the blink of an eye. A line of underwater cluster explosions tore through the river, in the direction of where its hand was pointed, straight to the navy ships, overturning them and rupturing hulls.
It was a contest of firepower and the Harbinger was already winning.
I was now almost at the other end of the bridge. The Harbinger didn't seem to have noticed me yet. Or maybe it was never coming for me after all? Either way, if I could just make it out of the bridge…
There was a big burly guy standing at the end of the bridge. Just standing there.
Probably shouldn't be too odd for a guy to just be standing there. But with all the explosions and screaming and monsters you'd think he'd know better than to run and hide or at least join the fight.
Was he an END soldier? He was putting on our uniform with the name END printed on the chest.
Another barrage of explosions rocked the bridge and I stumbled and held the bridge railing for support.
When I looked up again, the burly guy was charging straight at me, moving too fast for his size. The expression on his face blank and his eyes pitch black. Like empty voids.
He was a Hollowbound.
Before I could even react, he tackled me, his strong arms crushing my body to his in a tight uncomfortable hug.
"Get off!" I yelled even though I knew that was useless.
He rasped in my ear with a ghoulish voice, "For Vorthul The Infinite."
Before I even knew what was going on, the world lurched and my legs weren't on the pavement anymore.
I was free falling from about a hundred feet towards the East River and a terrifying realization hit me.
I'd been teleported.
And right in front of me, the Harbinger loomed, alarmingly close, an arm outstretched towards me.
A horrible feeling of déjà vu from my encounter with the Wind Harbinger washed over me.
But instead of getting flogged around mercilessly by wind, this time it was a scorching heat.
I felt like my body was going to suddenly combust the moment I appeared so close to the Harbinger but for some reason I didn't. But even then, the heat was still unbearable, searing my lungs from the strong stench of ozone.
Beside me, the possessed teleporter tumbled down, past me into the boiling churning river down below but I got caught. Literally.
In the center palm of the Harbinger.
The navy were still firing missiles at the Harbinger but I noticed none of the attacks seemed to actually hit.
The missiles seemed to fizzle out the moment they touched the Harbinger's body. The explosion and fire were getting snuffed out into fading smoke before it could even do any damage.
The Harbinger seemed to have the power over every fire-related attack thrown at it.
Just how powerful was this thing?
The whole body of the Harbinger looked sculpted, like a smooth golden statue, its body wrapped in an elegant medieval war uniform. Like a high ranking officer.
The eyes shone intensely and aggressively, like miniature suns.
"So you really have suppressed our poison." The Harbinger boomed, nearly shattering my ear drums. "The fact you are not on your knees grovelling at my presence tells me that."
Was that true? Had I really permanently suppressed the poison?
No. I could tell I hadn't yet. I could still feel the cold presence fighting to take over.
I didn't know what to say in response so I just squeaked, "Let me down now."
The Harbinger just chuckled, "I can't do that. The time is almost here. It doesn't really matter whether you can fight our poison or not. No, it's even better. It really just shows you are the perfect host. The perfect body for our lord. There is a reason why you are not yet burned to cinders by my heat."
"What are you talking about? That squeaky voice inside my head is your lord?" I yelled up at him.
The Harbinger chuckled, "That's merely a distraction. I actually came here to plant the seed in you."
I wanted to tell him that sounded super weird but I doubted he'd understand.
"I will now begin the process." He boomed, his eyes glowing even brighter and hotter.
He pointed his index finger at me and started muttering words. Words that sounded otherworldly and ancient and delicate. Like a sacred ritual.
Immediately it started chanting, I knew something completely horrible was going to happen if I allowed him to finish the chant.
I could feel it. A dreadful knot in my chest.
But what could I do? I was stuck. Right in the middle of its palm, literally. An invisible force held me in place.
I needed help.
Like some kind of miracle, something heavy slammed into the back of the Harbinger, making it stagger forward and momentarily making it stop the chant midway.
It was a massive cruise ship.
Had someone actually thrown a cruise ship at the Harbinger?
There was no way someone was strong enough to even move something like that.
But I was grateful. The heat coming from the Harbinger wavered. The distraction had also made it break the invisible force it had held me with.
I saw something zip past from the corner of my vision. It was so fast my eyes couldn't even follow it. Was that an army jet?
Before I knew it, I got tackled from behind by someone and shot forward in the direction of the battleships, my neck nearly snapping backward from the sudden acceleration.
"SOOOO HOOOTTTTT!" Abel yelled, his hands around my chest from behind, flying at nearly a hundred kilometers per hour, the tip of his blonde hair alight with tiny flames.
"Abel!"
He was too busy coughing and retching from the strong stench of the ozone to answer.
"RETURN THE VESSEL!" The Harbinger thundered behind us.
I heard a piercing shrill sound and a sudden wave of intense heat washed over us as we barely managed to avoid a laser beam attack from the Harbinger, the beam of light cutting through the air where we'd been mere seconds ago.
"Arghhh!" Abel yelled, now flying dangerously close to the river, "I'm not cut out for battles like this."
"Put me down on one of those battleships ahead!" I yelled over the wind.
"Are you crazy? That's totally in line of fire from the Harbinger's attacks."
"We are going to go right back, Abel."
Abel laughed, "You are joking right?"
Another laser attack flew over our heads and slicing through one of our battleships, tearing through metal like it was nothing.
"GIVE HIM BACK!" the Harbinger roared.
Abel landed me on the deck of one of the ships and collapsed on his knees, breathing hard.
Immediately my legs hit the deck, I hurried to the crew members of the ship who had now taken cover behind cargo containers, their faces tight and sweaty with terror.
"Hey do you guys have any weapons?" I asked them.
"Of course we have weapons! This is a battle ship." A gruff middle aged man said. From the massive hat he had on, I could tell he was the captain of the ship.
"Sorry. I mean a uh, hand weapon? Maybe one of those glowy axes?
"We do have one of those…" the man called to one of his crew mates, "Alex! Go get one. And be quick. That monster is targeting this lad. We can't have him frolicking in our ship for too long or we'll all get blown up to hell."
In a few minutes I had a massive battle axe in my arms, the blade humming with energy.
I turned to Abel.
"Now Abel, remember the plan." I said.
"I hate your plan." He grumbled.
"it's the only way."
After another minute of grumbling, we were in the air again, zooming towards the Harbinger.
"Remember, right after the next attack, when the heat is doused by the next big splash."
"Got it."
"You are sure there's actually a telekinetic throwing those ships at the Harbinger?" I asked Abel again.
We were hovering in the air about seventy feet away from the Harbinger and waiting.
"Yeah. Hylla ordered the poor girl to keep throwing ships at Golden Butt over there until she ran out of juice." Abel snapped up, "Oh here it comes!"
Another massive cruise ship sailed over the river and was heading towards the Harbinger at full speed.
Whoever that telekinetic person was, had to be top notch soldier. Carrying something that large had to be extremely draining.
When the ship got within range, the Harbinger smashed it with a casual wave of its hand and the ship fell to pieces in the river with a massive splash, waves of water washing over the Harbinger, momentarily reducing the heat.
"Now Abel!" I said.
And Abel shot forward with me at so much speed I was sure I'd get whiplash if he didn't have one hand behind my head, holding it in place.
We were now twenty feet away from the Harbinger.
It was still recovering from the attack, shoving debris off its body.
Ten feet.
The Harbinger finally spotted us zipping towards him at an extreme speed. But it was already too late.
Abel catapulted me at full speed when he was close enough to be relatively safe from the heat.
And he did his job a little too well. I didn't have time to aim at the neck properly as I flew at the Harbinger.
At the speed I was moving at, I was going to end up being a bloody splatter stain on the side of the Harbinger's neck.
At the last moment, instinct kicked in.
I tucked my knees together and folded myself into a compact ball, while holding the battle axe sideways, the blade facing outward, perfectly aligned with the Harbinger's neck.
The attack was smooth, painful, nasty and successful.
The blade sliced straight through the neck of the Harbinger—and then I followed, the momentum pushing me right through the wound I opened, and like a human bullet, I burst out through the back of the Harbinger's neck, my body covered in a hot gross sticky blood.
I tumbled downwards, gravity finally getting hold of me but Abel snatched me from the air and for once, he wasn't zipping through the air like a mad man.
Because this battle was finally over.
I looked back to see the gaping hole I'd made with my body, right through the Harbinger's neck. Our first lethal strike at a Harbinger.
The massive fire giant collapsed face first into the river in an explosive splash, finally dead.
"Woohoo!" Abel shouted excitedly in my ear, "We did it!"
I tried to smile and let myself be relieved but I couldn't.
As I watched the Harbinger fall, a knot in my chest tightened with dread.
Those chantings the Harbinger had recited for planting the "seed" in me were not at all harmless.