Chapter 12 - The Last RoarThe sound shattered the coastline.
Vael soldiers dropped.
Humans collapsed.
Joren screamed.
Alex remained standing.
Kael did too.
Daren stood between them.
The giant eye inside the gate opened wider.
A voice entered Alex's mind.
Not words.
Memory.
Cities burning.
Humans building machines.
The first Vael escaping underground.
The first Roar.
And a war that had lasted thousands of years.
Alex understood.
The Roar had never been created to enslave humans.
It had been created to stop something inside the human mind.
Something dormant.
Something that could communicate with the creature behind the gate.
Her mother had spent six years studying it.
The Vael had spent centuries suppressing it.
And Alex had inherited it.
She looked at Daren.
"You knew."
"I suspected."
"Kael?"
"I knew."
"Then why rescue me?"
Kael looked toward the gate.
"Because you're the only one who can close it."
Alex shook her head.
"I don't know how."
Her mother appeared beside her.
"You do."
Alex turned.
The projection touched her forehead.
A flood of memories entered her mind.
Her mother teaching her a melody as a child.
A strange humming sound.
A lullaby.
Alex remembered.
"You used to sing this."
Her mother smiled.
"It wasn't a song."
Alex understood.
"It was a frequency."
"Yes."
"The Roar."
"An opposite frequency."
Alex looked at the gate.
"What happens if I sing it?"
Her mother said:
"The door closes."
"And if it doesn't?"
Her mother's expression broke.
"Then everything wakes."
Veyra raised his weapon.
"Stop her!"
Thousands of Vael soldiers charged.
Kael stepped in front of Alex.
Daren beside him.
Joren picked up a fallen rifle.
"Three against an army."
Kael looked at him.
"Four."
Joren smiled.
"Fair."
The battle began.
Alex closed her eyes.
She remembered her mother's voice.
One note.
Then another.
She whispered the melody.
Nothing happened.
Again.
The gate trembled.
The creature roared.
Kael shouted:
"Keep going!"
Alex sang louder.
The Roar struck.
Her body locked.
Blood ran from her nose.
Still she continued.
Daren screamed.
The gate cracked.
Veyra reached Alex.
He grabbed her throat.
"You don't understand what you're doing."
Alex looked into his eyes.
"Neither do you."
Then Kael shot him.
Veyra fell.
Alex finished the melody.
The gate slammed shut.
Everything went silent.
For three seconds.
Then the ground beneath them cracked.
Kael looked down.
"That wasn't supposed to happen."
Alex opened her eyes.
"What?"
He stared toward the horizon.
"The gate closed."
May you like
He pointed.
"But something came through."
