The Children of Zegandaria - Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (world best books to read txt) 📗

mind of a person used to thinking in finite magnitudes, but one thing was more than certain the road was never ending.

After descending briefly on Izod Sin they felt the malevolent atmosphere of the place.

Gabriel knew the theory of so-called "island universes" well, as any young Zegandarian was expected to be at least theoretically good at physics and mathematics - it was the bare minimum in literacy. Later came the study of the so-called Universal Language, which was generally spoken only to the hundredth quadrant.

Getting stuck on the asteroid could have been a huge hassle, not for anything else, but because some of the crew members had already begun to faint from frustration.

- "Could it be that radiation levels had become critically high?," voiced Euron, who had a PhD in quantum physics and particle theory.

- "No, everything is normal," he was told, after taking careful measurements with the Geiger counter, "the device showed no anomalies."

After some circling, it saw a symbol carved into the rocks. She had never seen one like it.

She'd studied asteroids in her junior year of high school. She was aware that they were all over the galaxy. But here she was seeing this sign for the first time.

It was the image of Uval[31], which looked like a camel and walked slightly aligned. It seemed strange to her to have such writing in such a place, but then she guessed - Apparently the demon cult had spread to other places in the Galaxy and this was the secret plan of the cultists. Such religious leprosy was almost impossible to stop, or at least contain. She set to studying the images carefully - there were some intriguing details on them, but she didn't have the necessary knowledge to understand them. Fortunately, Durnyam was around - she called him.

Gabriel was impressed by his confident, if cautious, gait as he responded and began to approach. When he caught sight of that image, he gasped.

- "Do you know who that is?," he spoke into the cyclotron synthesizer. - "It's the cross of Uval!"

- "I don't understand you," she looked at him somewhat peculiarly, slightly disappointed that he was telling her something almost obvious.

- This sign only means that there were high representatives of the cult here, and most likely sacrifices were made here as well - he voiced his hidden concerns in a somewhat grim tone.

- "Here, in open space - impossible," she was about to laugh at that almost ludicrous thought. "Why should they have come all this way, however cranky!"

- "Who said humans came here!," declared Durnyam chillingly.

Gabriel was a brave girl, but she almost snorted at such a response and began to glimpse the extent of Hell's plot. So Zegandaria wasn't so special after all, just the last stop before total Armageddon!

- "After all, apparently things have been happening past us without us even realizing it," Durnyam continued with his reasoning. "If my logic is correct, then even the War for Au Kaktir was just a prelude to the real war that would decide everything. The strange thing here is that we don't even know when it will break out, though my intuition whispers to me - very soon."

Gabriel listened to his interesting lecture in rapt attention. He could see something else too, that they hardly had any serious chance of success this time. Fighting against the Ada wasn't quite the same as doing it against hordes of guarrons, for example.

- "You know I wish we were together!," Gabriel approached him.

- At least for a little while!

Durnyam had heard some distant rumours about her immense affection for a peculiar man like Dislan, and he had a hunch. Andrew was long gone from the living - even, frankly, most of his former acquaintances didn't remember him. If he went and asked any of the few survivors who had once worked at the Urus Onx spaceport, they would just look at him questioningly and shake their heads negatively. Sad, but a fact!

He wondered something very sad though, why life went in a sort of cycle where sooner or later you got screwed in exactly the same way. He knew that whatever was meant to be would be! If only he didn't lose his soul in the end!

Comets kept flying over the asteroid and they decided to turn back when they spotted a small cave.

A cave on an asteroid sounded more than unusual - eccentric, even.

They went to check it out, but left sentries by the command bay, which was ridiculously small here, even compared to the size of the transport shuttle. It was obvious that whatever visitors were coming here, they weren’t doing it in conventional ships or huge B-class ships.

Once inside the cave, they saw a small altar, made in a very strange way. It was probably built a long time ago and was definitely not human.

It was more than four meters tall, and all sorts of demonic symbols could be seen on it - some of which looked downright absurd.

It took Durnyam far too long to look around and decipher them all.

- I can only say that this altar is all demons, but there is something extremely unusual - on the back of the pedestal, instead of demonic texts and incantations, there are Light[32] texts.

- I don't understand?

- "Somewhere in there is the key to the whole truth," Durnyam said cryptically. "I have a feeling that this is the beginning of the end and it will unleash an uncontrollable chain of events. I'll scan everything just in case so I can examine it in peace in the shuttle."

The demonic presence continued to be felt as a slight whiff of death stalked us in the darkness. This time, even Durnyam picked up on it and became even more serious:

- We'd better get out of here an hour sooner.

On his way out of the cave, he cast a glance at the pagan shrine.

- "Shall we just blow it up?," suggested Gabriel.

Durnyam hesitated. The idea didn't seem so bad - there was just one but. One very big but!

CLUES TO THE PAST

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: CLUES TO THE PAST

 

They emerged from the cave and set off breeze explosives, which should have been enough to deal with the situation. But deep down, Durnyam feared some huge demonic reaction in response to the destroyed chapel.[33] Here, on the surface, were traces of apparent outsiders - not so noticeable, but still - somewhere there was all the logic of the existence of a parallel sectarian cult. But if such a division existed at all, what was the reason for it?

Why did it exist in such an abnormal way? Somewhere out there beneath the ruins lay the answer. They had seen to it that everything was all right.

Before they boarded the transport shuttle back they clearly realized something - Jessica was not on board with them.

They went back to look for her, but in vain - they couldn't find her. They crossed the asteroid, which took them hours because they were not well secured and had to proceed very slowly. It turned out that she had disappeared into thin air.

When they went to inspect the blasted site they were horrified to discover that she was buried under the debris.

Apparently the demonic presence had kept her within range of the detonation in order to destroy her.

Her body was torn apart and it was frightening to look into the shattered visor of her spacesuit, where the pale light of passing comets reflected.

They decided they couldn't take her aboard the shuttle. Her body was so lifeless that Durnyam realized there was nothing left for them to wait and explore. They had to get out of here an hour at a time.

Durnyam even feared that the crew of the two Ufurgan pilots had blown somewhere, because that would mean certain death for them.

Euron looked at him particularly and realized what he was thinking. They stood by her corpse for a few minutes and then took a final goodbye. That asteroid was going to be her grave!

When they boarded, the two men didn't blink, clearly aware of the paradoxical nature of what was happening. The First Great War for Au Kaktir and the ensuing battle with the guarron had wiped out ninety percent of the planet's population, but at least they had hope that they were fighting their own kind.

Euron held back the tears that betrayed that he was suffering for the loss of his sister.

The hatches closed, and just as they were about to Engage the vertical quantum stabilizers to fly out, someone started banging and pounding on the shuttle's hull. The lights flickered. It was as if someone was trying to open some kind of can - and with particular ferocity.

The blows on the hull became more and more frantic and brutal. You could feel the tension of the two Ufurgans, who seemed to regret having set out on this journey at all.

Though small, the shuttle was well insulated and made of a special enodium alloy that included pure composite, quion nanofibers, kevlarite, and ceramics to protect it from extremely high temperatures.

In the shuttle, besides the two pilots, Durnyam and Euron, were also Zekaraya, Er Mo Za - as the most senior after Durnyam, and of course Ngufu - the high priest of the Church of Nergal[34]. This cult was another wild variety of the religious feudalism that reigned throughout these lands, but "The Children of Kasdeya" had captured it in their desire to learn more about the sect. Yes, every detail mattered.

The transport shuttle took the blows one after the other - they were particularly cruel, but at any moment the worst could happen. Even in such a sublime moment, Durnyam decided to look over the materials the chapter had collected. He saw the markings of many different demons, each with a corresponding hierarchy and function. Many of the things he didn't understand, but his eyes were opened to many others and he understood the infernal design. Even if it sounded crazy, he saw that the forces of Hell were by no means acting chaotically or relying on chance. Perhaps they had not taken into account his knowledge of ancient languages and cultures.

Suddenly, the shuttle shuddered and split in two and began to de-hermetize. It was getting dangerous. They hurriedly donned their spacesuits and reached some understanding on how to deal with the common enemy.

Facing them was a huge demon that had opened its maw menacingly and could easily devour them. But, they had almost no weapons. And they had to make do somehow.

- "I'm the oldest, and if anyone has to perish, let it be me!," voiced Er Mo Za his concerns.

Soon it would all be over. Durnyam disagreed, but it was all going to hell. They gave him a simple axe because they had nothing else in the transport shuttle and dumped him on the surface of the asteroid.

The demon approached with an ugly growl. Er Mo Za unmistakably recognized Kasdeya and was about to drop his axe.

- "Your weapon is useless, mere mortal!," came a sickening wheezing sound.

The demonic woman was over two meters tall and had enormous zippy wings.

- "You are known as the demon of lies," he shouted.

- "It is not from me that your death will come, believe