Читать книгу Universe Аeternov. Book three: A Heart in Ashes - - Страница 7

Three teams. One way. No going back.

After winning in the Mountains of Broken Oaths, where the past was a trap and memories were a weapon, only three of the ten teams that started the Marathon of No Return reached the final hurdle:

1. Team of Light – Alexey Mechanic and Kitty the Lion.

2. The Bad Guys Team – Wrath-9 and Shadow-Fang (The Mad Mammoth never recovered from the laser pointer).

3. The Shadow Brothers from Ghouldom are ghostly runners with black sand cloaks and compass eyes indicating fear.

The last obstacle before the finale was waiting for them – the Last Gasp.

Chasms where there is no bottom, where the air is buzzing with the cries of forgotten destinies, where neither speed, nor strength, nor cunning can save.

There is only one law in force here:

You can only jump with faith. Doubt – and you fall into the abyss, where erased destinies scream.

The first leap is faith in a friend.

The first cliff is a hundred paces wide. There is a void underfoot, filled with the echo of forgotten names.

– Well, steel grandpa, – snorted the Lion. – Are you afraid?

«I’m afraid, – Alexey answered honestly. – But not the abyss. I’m just afraid that you’ll decide to build a «space massage» right in flight.

– Only if you ask!» Lev chuckled.

Immediately, he jumped – not forward, but upward, leaving a trail of stardust and jokes in his wake.

– Hey, Anger! «Stop it!» he shouted as he walked. – Did you hear the joke about the cyborg who was afraid of heights?

Alexey looked at his friend, not at the shoes, but at the belief that he would not betray him.

And the moment the steel legs lifted off the edge, the abyss fell silent.

Faith is not the absence of insurance. Faith is to jump without even seeing the bottom.

Bad guys – doubt is like falling.

Wrath-9 growled:

– We are not children! We will not jump like fools!

He activated the pain reactor and rushed forward. But as soon as he got off the ground, the abyss began to speak.:

«You’re not a hero. You’re a machine with saws instead of hands. Who loves you?»

Doubt seeped into his steel like rust.

«No… I… I’m needed!» «Stop it!» he shouted.

But it was too late.

He fell. Not down. And into the abyss of erased destinies, where those who have even forgotten the songs scream.

Shadow Fang reached out his hand, but only grabbed the void.

– He’s… gone, – he whispered. – It’s not even in the memory of time.

Shadow brothers – faith in fear.

The Shadow Brothers didn’t jump. They dissolved, becoming invisible, trying to deceive the abyss.

But the abyss does not deceive.

«You are not hiding from us. You are hiding from yourself,» the erased destinies whispered.

One brother remembered for a moment how he was afraid of the dark when he was a child. How a mother sang a lullaby… How he died for the first time and cried with oil.

– I… don’t want to be a shadow…» he whispered.

And he fell.

The second brother froze on the edge. I looked at Alexey and Lev, who were already standing on the other bank.

– Why don’t you fall? «Stop it!» he shouted.

«Because we’re not alone, – Alexei replied.

«And you?» – Lev asked. – Are you alone?

My brother fell silent. Then he jumped. Not with faith in victory, but with faith that someone will catch his fall.

And a miracle happened.

The abyss caught him, as a mother catches a crying child. He landed on the other shore, trembling but alive.

«You are not a shadow,» said the Lion, holding out his paw. – You’re the one who still remembers how to be afraid.

The finish line is not a prize, but a memory.

On the last cliff, there was an Eternal Pulse Crystal, pulsating like a living heart.

Alexey approached, but the crystal did not shine.

«It’s strange, – he said.

Alina came out of the shadows.

«The prize has already been taken, – she said softly. «Not you. Not them. The one who jumped in with faith in forgiveness.

She pointed to her Shadow Brother, still trembling on the edge.

– He didn’t want to win. He wanted to stop being afraid. And this is the purest faith.

My brother put his hand on the crystal.

A burst of light illuminated the abyss.

– I… didn’t deserve this, – he whispered.

«You deserve it, – Alexei said. «You didn’t jump for the prize. You jumped for yourself.

The lion rubbed against his leg:

– Mrrr… now you are not a Shadow. You are the Brother of Light.