EARTH WARRIORChapter 81: Four Pillars, Four Destinies
The deployment happened fast.
No ceremony.
No lengthy preparation.
Just coordinates and timeframes.
Four transports.
Four destinations.
Four impossible tasks.
Mission Briefing – 1530 Hours
Valen stood before the assembled group.
Kurogane. Brann. Seris. Irian.
Four elements.
Four pillars.
"Each distortion site corresponds to ancient anchor point," Valen said. "Northern, Western, Eastern, Central. Historical records suggest each pillar was attuned to specific element during original Sealing."
He activated the display.
Four sites highlighted.
"Northern Pillar – Earth affinity," he continued. "Brann, you're assigned there."
Brann nodded.
"Western Pillar – Fire affinity. We'll have to proceed without Raien. Kurogane, you'll take Western site—lightning can substitute for fire in elemental balance."
Kurogane felt lightning stir.
Fire and lightning aren't the same.
Close enough under pressure.
"Eastern Pillar – Wind affinity," Valen continued. "Seris."
"Understood," Seris said.
"Central Pillar – Water affinity. Irian."
"What's our objective?" Irian asked.
"Stabilization," Mizuki replied. "Each pillar is failing because elemental resonance is disrupted. Your role is to restore it."
"How?" Brann challenged.
"We don't know exactly," Masako admitted. "Historical records are fragmentary. But the theory is—direct elemental contact with the pillar site reinforces the seal."
"Theory," Seris repeated. "Not tested."
"Nothing about this is tested," Valen said. "But it's all we have."
Silence.
"What about enemy forces?" Kurogane asked. "Intelligence showed them converging on distortion sites."
"They're protecting the distortions," Mizuki confirmed. "Or facilitating them. You'll encounter resistance."
"So we're walking into combat zones," Irian said. "Where elements don't work properly. To attempt theoretical reinforcement. Against unknown opposition."
"Yes," Valen replied.
"Wonderful," Seris muttered.
Lightning pulsed.
This is suicide.
Maybe.
You're still going.
Yes.
Why?
Because someone has to.
Kurogane stood.
"When do we deploy?" he asked.
"Immediately," Valen said. "Time to critical threshold: five hours forty minutes."
"That's not much time—" Brann began.
"It's what we have," Valen interrupted. "Transports are ready. Support teams assigned. Medical on standby."
He looked at each of them.
"You're the best elemental users we have," he said. "If anyone can do this, it's you."
"And if we can't?" Seris asked.
Valen didn't answer.
Didn't need to.
If they failed—
The seal broke.
12,000 years of containment ended.
The Darkness Emperor returned.
Simple.
Apocalyptic.
Unavoidable.
Departure – 1545 Hours
The four transports lifted simultaneously.
North. West. East. Central.
Each carrying one elemental user.
Each heading toward wrongness.
Kurogane sat alone in his transport.
Raishin across from him.
The old instructor had insisted on accompanying.
"Someone needs to watch your back," he'd said.
Lightning hummed anxiously.
Western Pillar.
Fire affinity.
We're lightning.
Close enough.
Is it?
We're about to find out.
Raishin spoke without opening his eyes.
"You know this might not work," he said.
"I know."
"And you're going anyway."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Kurogane looked at his hands.
At scars from suppression.
At fingers that could discharge.
At choices made visible.
"Because refusing isn't option anymore," he said. "This isn't manipulation. This isn't politics. This is real."
"So all your principles about precedent—"
"Still matter," Kurogane interrupted. "But context matters more. Sector Nine taught me that. Sometimes you deploy. Sometimes you refuse. This time—"
"You deploy," Raishin finished.
"Yes."
Lightning settled.
Not calm.
Resolved.
Ready for whatever came.
Even if it meant—
Kurogane didn't finish the thought.
Some possibilities were better left unexamined.
Western Pillar – Landing Zone – 1630 Hours
The transport descended through thick cloud cover.
Emerged into—
Wrong.
The landscape below was distorted.
Not physically.
Elementally.
Colors shifted incorrectly. Shadows fell at impossible angles. Reality bent around a central point where—
The distortion.
A sphere of wrongness maybe fifty meters across.
Pulsing.
Growing.
Consuming normal space.
"Set down as close as possible," Kurogane ordered.
"Sir, approach patterns are unstable—"
"I know. Do it anyway."
The transport lurched.
Shuddered.
Touched down hard two hundred meters from the distortion.
Hatches opened.
Kurogane stepped out.
And immediately felt it.
Lightning disrupted.
Not gone.
Just... confused.
Like trying to hear through static.
Or see through fog.
This is wrong, lightning said. Voice distant.
I know.
We shouldn't be here.
We have to be.
Raishin exited behind him.
Stopped.
Stared.
"That's worse than the reports suggested," he said.
The distortion pulsed again.
And Kurogane saw—
Movement inside.
Not physical.
Something else.
Pressure.
Intention.
Testing boundaries.
"It's trying to break through," he said.
"Can it?" Raishin asked.
"Eventually."
Lightning coiled tighter.
How long do we have?
Kurogane felt the rhythm.
The pulse.
The slow, deliberate expansion.
Hours.
Maybe less.
A scout appeared—academy reconnaissance team that had established perimeter.
"Sir," she said. "Enemy forces are two klicks west. Moving this direction. ETA thirty minutes."
"How many?"
"Estimate two hundred. Mixed elemental composition. Well-coordinated."
"They're coming to protect the distortion," Raishin said.
"Or complete whatever process started it," Kurogane replied.
He moved toward the distortion.
Feeling resistance increase with each step.
Lightning struggled.
Trying to function.
Failing.
At fifty meters—
Complete disruption.
Lightning went silent.
Not suppressed.
Not contained.
Just... absent.
Like it had never existed.
Kurogane stopped.
Breathing hard.
The absence was terrifying.
Lightning had been part of him since childhood.
Constant companion.