Part 7: Death to the Prophecy

Only eleven minutes remained till midnight, and Belquad and Asrar had only one question on their minds; ‘can Xentio beat it in time?’.

Asrar and Belquad wanted to help Xentio, but the fight was out of their league. All they could do was sit and watch.

“I’m positive that Xentio will give it all his got,” Asrar said, trying to think positively, “and I honestly think we got a fighting chance.”

The winged whale opened its jaws of death to crush its enemy, but Xentio dodged swiftly, flaying above. Xentio slided down all the way on Bombutachakua’s spine, cutting it open with its Qi Sword. The winged whale cried as it was in so much pain. its entire back was cut vertically, bleeding non-stop. This, along with all the other injuries it earlier. The winged whale didn’t have enough time to heal completely.

As minutes passed by, Asrar noticed that something strange was happening in the sky. It was opening up! The planets were visible to the naked eye, all lined up them.

“This is …” Asrar said in amazement.

“Impossible.” Belquad couldn’t believe his eyes, “I could see Mars, and Venus, and Mercury too!”

The planets were almost in one line, right above the whale. Only a few minutes remained till midnight. At that point, the whale started glowing, it was obvious that the whale was getting stronger. Xentio tried to attack it, but it attacked first with a radioactive ray. A huge neon-like beam shot in a signal light like a laser. It came directly from the whale’s mouth, but the real source were the lined planets. Luckily, Xentio managed to shield it using its Qi Shield.

“I can’t believe my eyes!” Belquad said, witnessing the strangest phenomenon in his life.

“You can do this Xentio!” Asrar shouted. “Hang in there!”

Xentio blocked the attack hard, struggling as it resisted to remain in mid-air. Xentio might be just a machine, but it knew its duties, and what it was created, and whom to serve. Thus it gave it all it’s got to save mankind.

●●●

Xentio fought the beast as he blocked the radioactive glowing beam using his Qi Shield located at his left arm. Asrar knew what power it had as she studied it in the afternoon, it could block several types of beams.

“He’s been like that for a while now,” Belquad talked to Asrar. “do you think that he’s stalling?” Belquad thought of the possibility that Xentio was disadvantaged and was starting to lose.

“Did you know that whales are not fish!” Asrar said out of the blue.

“Huh?” Belquad had no idea what she was talking about.

“It’s true.” She added. “Throughout the day you kept calling it a fish, but it’s not a fish. Some biologist believe that whales once walked upon land, that’s millions of years ago. As many years passed, the whales evolved. Their back legs disappeared and their front legs became flippers! Now they live in the ocean.”

“Are you serious?” Belquad was surprised, but not about the facts, but her timing to tell them. “We’re in a war and you’re reciting a history lesson?”

“Whales are mammals, so they do not have gills.” She ignored Belquad and continued, “so they can’t breathe underwater. They have to come up to the surface and breathe air through their blowholes on their backs.”

Just then, Belquad understood what Asrar was trying to say. Xentio heard Asrar as well and knew what it had to do. Xentio flipped its shield to reflect the radioactive ray back at the whale. The whale fell into the water from the strong impact but that wasn’t a problem to the whale, since reemerging was as easy as flying.

However, to the whale’s surprise, once it tried to reemerge, it couldn’t. Xentio attacked it from above, ensuring that it wouldn’t reemerge again. Whatever the whale tried, Xentio was one step ahead of it. The whale soon changed its mind of emerging and instead dove fast underwater, and Xentio fallowed it.

“No!” Asrar shouted. “Xentio is following the whale into deep waters. That’s its territory. Xentio can’t function well underwater.

“The whale tricked Xentio?!” Belquad said sad, knowing that they lost their last hope.

Asrar and Belquad just sat there as they waited for the final outcome. At this point, less than a minute remained till complete alignment.

“ … okay, now we lost.” Asrar admitted defeat a second too soon.

At incredible speed, the whale came up again jumping in the sky. It was a spectacular scene as it rose up to fifty feet high. Then it fell down, and floated on the surface.

“Its dead?” Belquad said surprise.

Asrar and Belquad saw Xentio’s body stuck in the whale’s blowhole. Xentio deliberately blocked it to prevent it from breathing air.

“A drown whale,” Belquad said surprised. “that’s a new one.”

Asrar and Belquad were happy, but a bit confused. Bombutachakua seamed to have drowned, but how could it as it had just breathed a few seconds ago. Asrar wasn’t sure, but she came up with a theory after quickly examining the body of the whale. It had new scars.

“Xentio must have attacked it underwater multiple times as it tried to escape.” Asrar explained. “Getting injured a lot often result in needing to breath again. While it tried to go up again, Xentio must’ve used itself to block its blowhole.”

As the body of the gigantic whale floated above the water level, the sky closed once again, and the planets were invisible to the naked eye. The rain rained normal again, then became weaker until it reached a full stop. And the weather soon returned to normal.

Xentio was out of energy for good. It has completed its mission in life, and was a life form no more.

●●●

“Uh-ha!” the general exhaled in relief. He sat next to Asrar as they waited for the rescue team to find them. “There’s nothing sweeter than the sweet smell of success, I feel like seafood,” he said, then paused to turn towards Asrar “how about it Eisenhower, are you hungry, my treat?”
“May I take a rain-check general,” Asrar said. “I have a big date with my pillow.”

“Then how about tomorrow? After your beauty sleep that is.”

“You’re quite persistent General.”

“I don’t take no for an answer!” Belquad replied, then added. “Actually tomorrow I’m going to pay my respects to Gwinn,” Belquad paused as he remembered how she exited this world, and thinking of what he will say to her mother. Then he stopped thinking and continued immediately so Asrar wouldn’t think the general was soft or caring: “and Maxwell and all the other brave warriors who lost their lives tonight. Want me to pick you up?” Belquad said, referring to their funeral.

Asrar looked up at the stars in the clear sky, then asked: “You think anyone would believe that we saved the Earth in twenty four hours, allied with an ancient machine?” then she answered herself, as she saw it as a rhetorical question: “Probably not, we should keep it to our selves, don’t you think?”

“Thinking like a true military personnel, I like it.” Belquad said, then made a judgment based on knowing Asrar for a day: “You’re not that bad to hang out with!”

“I think I’ll take that as a compliment,” Asrar smiled, then said: “thank you.”
“It’s been a fun day, we should do that again.” Belquad joked, but really meant what he said about seeing her again. “I mean we do form an exceptional unit.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, general,” Asrar smiled, then continued: “but I don’t want to see you until the next national catastrophe!” Asrar joked with her partner.

“I just remembered that dinosaurs find a way to live again, and they’re after world domination!” Belquad told a lousy lie.

“Don’t push it Belquad!”

*** THE END ***