The Power of Five Oblivion

into the air and sent crashing into the fortress wall. With a single movement Matt scattered a long line of enemy soldiers, sweeping them off their feet and toppling them onto the ice. Next to him, Richard was firing wildly. It was impossible to be sure what was going on. Everywhere they looked, there was carnage – flailing arms, distorted faces, splattering blood.
    The blizzard had sprung up again. Seeing what was happening from one and half kilometres away, Scarlett had done the only thing she could. She had sent the wind and snow whipping into the enemy lines, hoping to blind them and drive them back. She, better than anyone, understood what had happened. She had spent time in Hong Kong with the Old Ones in power and knew how easily they could twist reality, to make you see whatever they wanted. She knew that not a single missile fired by the Super Hornets had really found its target. There must have been some sort of shield in place. The buildings hadn’t been touched. Nobody had been hurt or injured. But the Old Ones had created a mass illusion and they had foolishly believed it.
    Commander David Cain had also realized that he had been tricked. His hands were locked onto the binoculars, holding them as if he could crush them. What he was watching was no battle. It was mindless slaughter. He knew that this was his fault. The boy, Matt, had tried to warn him.
    “They’re toying with you. They’re waiting for you to come to them. You’re doing exactly what they want.”
    He remembered the words but he hadn’t believed them at the time. Why should he have? He’d thought he had the advantage. A classic air strike followed by an infantry attack. It was what he had been taught decades ago, back at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Nothing he had learnt there could ever have prepared him for this.
    Once again, he lifted the transmitter to his lips.
    “Red-seven.”
    It was the signal for the retreat: not that he thought it would make any difference now. The Old Ones, these … things … would follow the World Army across the ice. They would hack them down as they ran. None of them would actually make it back to the tents and the tents would probably be destroyed too, the doctors and nurses, the children and civilians butchered. Was there anything he could do? Perhaps the Super Hornets could come back in. He could order a bombardment from the frigate. No. That would just kill his own people. He could only stand there and watch.
    The World Army had already fallen back, separating itself from the enemy, and for a few seconds there was a gap between them. Cain could see the white space, even with the snow falling. At the same time, he heard an explosion like nothing that had gone before. It was a hollow boom that seemed to start from inside the very earth. It was ten times louder and lasted ten times longer than any of the missile strikes he had commanded. And suddenly he saw. The entire ice shelf was shaking. People were running towards him – there were hundreds of them – but for some reason the Old Ones had pulled back. Some sort of black line had appeared in front of them. It was acting like a barrier. They were slowing down, afraid to cross.
    Cain raised the binoculars to his eyes and stared in disbelief. There was a crack in the surface of the ice that ran the entire width of Oblivion. The glacier had split in half! He was looking at a chasm which must have been hundreds of metres deep. The World Army was on one side. The Old Ones were trapped on the other. Dozens of the enemy soldiers nearest to it, the ones who had been closest to it when it opened, were falling into the void. He saw them tumbling like black crumbs swept off the edge of a table. Of course, there were creatures who could fly. The fighters made out of insects. Some of the shape-changers. But they seemed confused by what had just happened. They were holding back.
    The remnants of the World Army drew closer. Almost half of them – perhaps as many as a thousand people – had been killed. The battle was lost. But thanks to some miracle, a freak of nature, the massacre hadn’t been total.
    Ten paces away, Scarlett knew exactly what had happened. It was Matt. Only he could have done this. He must have grown stronger than ever to split an entire ice shelf in two! She wondered if there was any limit to his power. Maybe, given time, he could take on the fortress itself.
    “Commander…?” One of the staff officers approached Cain, waiting