The Last God

by Norris Black

"What's to keep him from coming right back? When we took our little road trip there together, he didn't have much trouble popping back and forth between there and back here.".

  "I've been thinking about that. Whatever Ralph did to him must have robbed him of some of his innate abilities. Otherwise, he would have traveled through the Wyrd to get here instead of making his way by force."

  "Wait, the wyrd is an actual place, and you went there?" I sometimes forget Dagda hadn't been privy to all that had transpired so far.

  "It's a long, terrifying story. I'll tell you about it sometime over a drink." Some images from that mad dash through the varied and strange vistas of the wyrd flashed through my mind. "Make that drinks, lots of them." Turning back to Mara I said, "Can you do it?"

  "Normally, no. But here? Being this close to the Last God changes the rules a bit, the walls are thinner here. I'll need some room. I also suggest you find something to hang on to."

  Dagda and I stepped back to the edges of the clearing while Mara went about drawing an intricate circle in the dust and blood-encrusted dirt caking the road. Once done, she stood in the center of it and began to chant. One by one, the lines in the dirt began to glow a brilliant blue. When the last line lit up, a black square appeared in the air above Garm's still struggling form.

  Sweat beaded on her forehead as she formed her hands into claws and forced them away from each other, as if gripping something and trying to tear it asunder. As her arms moved the black void grew in size until it was as big as the beast itself.

  I grabbed a nearby beam as I felt the air tug at me, pulling me toward the square of absolute blackness. Dagda followed my example.

  The portal wavered for a moment, and Mara let out a great shout and it stabilized.

  Garm threw back his head and howled again as the blackness moved slowly downwards, the hair all over his body being pulled towards the void.

  As the portal neared him, Garm surged forward, chunks of asphalt flying as he tore his back legs free. I shouted a warning, but it came too late. The beast's jaws clamped onto Mara's leg and both wolf and woman were sucked into the void. The portal closed with the finality of a thunderclap.

  I knelt in the dust and blood and broken bits of asphalt, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Mara Valentine was one of the few constants over the last thirty years of my life. An unshakable pillar of the world. But now that pillar had been pulled out, suddenly and violently. How was the world still standing? I tried to string together a coherent thought, a course of action, but it was all scattered, any attempts to coral them resulted in nothing but flashes of pain. I could hear Dagda's voice, but the words were meaningless.

  "There's nothing you could've done."

  Those words struck a spark in the darkness of my mind. Nothing I could've done. It was the same thing Mara said to me after Jayna had died—tortured and butchered by a madman. I didn't save them, but I made damn sure the man responsible joined them in the ground.

  "Ralph." It was a single word, not even the real name of the monster behind all this, but I grabbed it like a drowning man grabs a rope.

  I got to my feet, wiping my eyes with the sleeve of my coat, and started off in the direction of the crater. Dagda fell in beside me.

  "My father, bless his enlarged heart, passed on many pearls of wisdom before departing this shithole of a world." I tend to ramble when I'm anxious, and at the moment, I needed something to distract from my dark thoughts. "There is one in particular I'm reminded of right now."

  "Which one's that?"

  "Kill the motherfucker."

  A silent moment as we both trudged along before Dagda finally asked. "Who was he referring to when he said that?"

  "Oh, he just meant in general."

  "Your father sounded like an... interesting man."

  "He was crazier than a shithouse rat. Still, its good advice."

  Ahead, the road ended abruptly, the cracked blacktop sheared away by the impact of something immense, leaving behind nothing but a crater a mile. The air above the abyss was filled with strange lights. Shadows and brilliance danced to unheard music.

  Standing on the very edge was the silhouette of a figure wearing a long robe and a broad-brimmed hat.

  Chapter 28

  "Is there any reason I shouldn't just punt you over the edge right here and move on about my day?"

  "That's hardly a way to get the answers you seek," said The Thing With Many Teeth.

  "I'm not interested in answers anymore. I just need to see a man about a brutal death, specifically his."

  "Is this Mr. Teeth?" asked Dagda as she eyed the strange apparition standing on the crater's edge.

  As every other time I'd seen him, he wore a long purple robe covering him from head to toe along with a broad-brimmed hat that left his eyes in perpetual shadow. His most defining feature was the eternal maniacal smile containing more teeth than should've been legal. Even with the never-changing grin, he managed to look affronted by Dagda's question.

  "Mr. Teeth? Is that the name you've given me? I was hoping for something a little more... grand."

  "I tried to give you a doctorate but that was voted down. Now, how about you be useful for a change and tell me where to find Ralph. I have a burning need to introduce him to some high-velocity friends of mine." I held up the Boxer to make sure he understood the point.

  "We have time, first there are some things you need to know."

  "Can it wait? If Ralph makes it to the Last God, the whole game goes over the edge. More importantly, I'll miss my shot at killing him. And I so dearly want to kill him."

  "I said, 'we have time'. Look around."

  Intent on the source of much of my recent woes, I hadn't noticed how eerily quiet it had become. Where before a gentle night breeze whistled through the ruins, there was now nothing. I looked over at Dagda to see her standing statue still, mouth open, frozen mid-word.

  "This trick again. You know, this would've come in handy about a dozen or so times in the past week."

  "It's a difficult labor to undertake, and one I can't maintain for long."

  "Fine, so tell me what it is I need to know so badly."

  "It's not enough to kill Ralph. I have my doubts you'd be able to achieve even that task with your mortal toys, but if you did, it would simply release the dark spirit within. It would simply find a new host, and this would all begin again."

  "If you have any alternatives behind those pearly whites, now is the time to spit them out."

  "You need to take the power of the Last God for your own. You need to become the Will behind the Way. With divinity at your command you can lock him away in the nightmare whence he came, for the rest of eternity."

  "Fallen's balls man, have you looked at me? Divinity is not in my wheelhouse."

  "Sometimes, those who least want power are the ones most suited to have it."

  "You should write greeting cards."

  "There's more at stake than you know. The potency of a god needs direction. With no guiding Will the energies of creation grow wild, twisting reality at every turn. Look around, these ruins are irradiated with unchecked, unguided potentiality. It grows by the moment. If left unchecked, it will consume all of your Crash City within the span of a decade."

  An idea hit me, and a sudden hope flared to life. "Tell me, this divine power, can it bring people back from the dead?"

  Though the thing's expression remained unchanged, I detected sadness as he shook his head. "Some things are beyond even the abilities of a god."

  The short-lived hope died, and I tasted nothing but ashes.

  "Well, that settles it. How about you cut the shit. Tell me where Ralphy boy is, and I'll go see for myself how unkillable he really is. I assure you. I am highly motivated."

  The Thing With Many Teeth sighed. "As you will." A long, thin arm covered in crisscrossed purple straps emerged from the robe and pointed to a nearby arch. The building it had once belonged to was now nothing more than a pile of ruin, the entranceway
the only portion left standing. "Through there you will find a tunnel leading to the base of the crater. I've done my best to slow your quarry, but he's growing wise to my misdirection and will soon reach his destination. I suggest you hurry, and please, think on what has been said here."

  "You have some explaining to do," said Dagda to the empty air at the edge of the chasm. The breeze tugged at my coat as my troubled gaze met her confused one. "Where did he go?" she asked.

  "He does that. Aggravating, isn't it? Never mind that, I know where Ralph went." I set off in the direction of the arch before Dagda had time to form any more questions. The tunnel was where he said it would be, a black hole in the ground with a rough passage sloping away from the surface.

  "Nothing good ever happens underground," I said under my breath, before starting the descent.

  The tunnel wound downward at a steep incline, but the jaggedness of the stone making up the walls and floor provided plenty of hand and footholds. After the first turn, the pale moonlight we had been navigating by disappeared completely, and we descended in darkness.

  The passage didn't appear to be manmade, but I couldn't imagine what natural forces might have created it. It was like some giant worm had bored a hole down through the bedrock. That of course made me think of the Collector and I nervously reached a hand back to ensure Dagda was still with me. Her hand found mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze. It was a small gesture, but one that brought immense comfort.

  After a few minutes, I noticed with surprise I could see some details of the rocky walls surrounding me. There was a light up ahead. The tunnel opened into a small circular cavern, roughly twenty feet in diameter. The radiance was coming from a dozen or so tiny flames sprouting from a brass tree branch. In appearance, it was much like the ones we had seen in the underground village, though this one was only a single limb. It looked as if it had grown out of the cave wall.

  "He went down there," said Dagda, pointing out a set of tracks in the dust where they led to another tunnel, this one running in a straight line with no hint of a slope. I pulled the Boxer from its holster and stepped into this new passage. The anger fueling me ever since Mara had fallen in the battle with Garm was beginning to ebb, making space for my old, familiar friend, fear.

  After about thirty feet the passage ended, and we laid eyes on the corpse of the Last God for the first time.

  "It's not what I expected," said Dagda, wonder in her voice as we both shielded our eyes from the view. Pain lanced through my head anytime I tried to look at it directly.

  It wasn't what I expected either.

  I also didn't expect the foot or more of bloody spear that suddenly erupted from my chest.

  Chapter 29

  Have you ever been stabbed in the back? I don't mean metaphorically like a friend spreading gossip about you, or a business partner cutting a deal that leaves you out in the cold. I mean have you ever had someone ram a sharpened metal object into your back with ill intent?

  No? Good. I don't recommend the experience.

  Let's start with the pain, because there's... well, all of it. When cut your finger, your finger hurts. The pain has a source and the further away from that source the less pain you have. For instance, your foot doesn't throb when you injure your hand. But when a spear is forced through your back and out your chest, the pain is so overwhelming it's everywhere, your entire body becomes an exposed nerve that someone is grinding a boot heel into.

  The other thing that happens is you lose your breath. You see the human torso houses these handy little things called lungs and I'm pretty sure Ralph's spear went through one of them. I dropped to the ground like a sack of meat, drowning in pain and my own blood. All that was needed now was for someone to light me on fire and I would hit the trifecta of human misery.

  Dagda screamed in fury and lashed out with her sword, the clash of steel-on-steel echoing in the night.

  Ralph had scaled the stone wall and had been crouched like a spider above the tunnel's exit, waiting for his moment to strike.

  He leapt down and met Dagda's swing with one of his own. Whereas the Seraph's sword was long and slender with a slightly curved blade and a hilt that could accommodate two hands as easily as one, the weapon Ralph wielded was crudely fashioned, all sharp angles and serrated teeth. Likely he had scavenged it from one of the Twists he had slain on his journey here.

  Dagda was clearly the better trained fighter, her movements fluid and efficient. However, what Ralph lacked in ability, he made up for in blinding speed and brute power. Time and again Dagda was forced back, avoiding killing blows by mere inches. Still, her own weapon found a home in rag-enshrouded flesh more than once, but the creature infesting Ralph's skin paid these wounds no heed.

  The Seraph dodged to the side as the crude sword came down in a wide arch, slamming into the rocky cavern floor and spraying rock chips like buckshot in all directions. Dagda stepped on the back of the blade and kicked out with her other foot, hitting Ralph square in the face, and sending him stumbling back.

  Before the soldier could take advantage, the monster known as Ralph surged forward again, this time sweeping his sword at an upward angle in an attempt to cleave his opponent from hip to shoulder. Dagda leaned back as the jagged blade keened through the air. At first, I thought the strike had missed entirely but a few moments later a thin line of red, about a foot long, appeared on Dagda’s white uniform. The Seraph paid it no heed as she aimed a two-handed swing at Ralph’s neck that he effortlessly batted aside returning with an almost lazy swing that nearly took the top of Dagda’s head off. She dove under it, rolling to her feet several feet away breathing hard and covered in sweat. The blood stain blossoming on her jacket spread further.

  I could do nothing but watch helplessly as the duel unfolded. Grasping the wooden shaft of the spear where it exited my chest, I gave it a weak tug and my vision turned black. I'm not sure how long I was out, but when my vision cleared Dagda was still fighting for her life, so it must have only been seconds. Stretching out a hand I tried to reach the Boxer from where it had fallen onto the stone floor of the crater, but it was out of reach and I didn't have the strength to drag myself any further.

  A triumphant cry brought my attention back to the deadly match playing out in the crater of the Last God. Ralph had overextended himself on a lunge and Dagda made him pay for that error by lopping his sword arm off at the elbow.

  Her celebration proved to be premature as Ralph, with a snarl on his lips, kicked out with one foot, catching the Seraph in the stomach. The sound of bones cracking filled the air and Dagda's limp body flew across the chamber, impacting the wall ten feet behind her before sliding down into an unmoving heap.

  I tried to call out but the only thing that came out of my mouth was a spray of blood. Darkness edged my vision, growing by the moment, eating away more of the light.

  Ralph picked up his ugly sword with his one remaining arm and sauntered over to where I was still attempting to feebly pick myself up off the ground.

  "You really are difficult to kill, aren't you?" He gave the shaft of the spear protruding out of my back a whack with the side of his blade. The shock wave of pain nearly made me pass out and the ring of darkness in my vision narrowed. Ralph then gave out a hooting hyena laugh. A laugh that was all too familiar.

  “Lensky…”

  “Well, look at you de-tec-tive, finally figuring shit out. Though a day late and several pints of blood short.” A second hyena laugh.

  There’s nothing worse than a person who laughs at their own jokes.

  “…how?”

  Lensky was pacing in a circle around me now, reaching out every now and then with that ugly sword of his to tap the spear currently skewering my insides. Each metal ting sent shivers of pain shooting throughout my body. “Or course you don’t know, idiot. It’s your hate. It burns like a bonfire in the night. You put a bullet in my brain and sent me to a place where there is nothing but darkness and pain. Your hatred of me, man, that was a beacon li
ghting the way home. You see, that’s the trick. Here, in this place, you want something bad enough you can make it happen.” He waved a hand in the direction of the corpse of the Last God. “You could say where there’s no Will, there’s always a way.” A feral grin contorted his face as he crouched down in front of me. “You’re the reason I’m here. All because you couldn’t get over some dumb bitch and her little crotchspawn. They got what was coming to them and so will you. What do you have to say to that?”

  I mustered all the resolve I had. These were going to be the last words I ever spoke, and I needed to make them count. Sensing the end was near, Lensky leaned forward to hear what I had to say, an expression of delight on his face.

  "Get... fucked..."

  His expression turned from delight to furious, and he swung his sword back in preparation to ending the inglorious life of one Gideon Brown once and for all.

  To this day I couldn't tell you how he got down there, I'm just glad he did. Louie announced his presence with a shrill yowl before charging the stunned Lensky and climbing him like a tree. Frenzied claws slashed out at Lensky’s pale, narrow face, digging bloody furrows with every strike. Lensky dropped his sword and staggered back, more in surprise than pain I think. With his only remaining hand Lensky grabbed the long-haired feline and tore it from his ruin of a face. With a scream of rage, the former cultist hurled the cat through the air and into the seething mass of tendrils—jet black warring with radiant white—that was the body of the Last God. Then Louie was gone.

  "Fucking hells," said Lensky, panting as he retrieved his sword and turned back to me, just in time to take a matched pair of bullets to the gut. Gore exploded out the exit wounds, and he staggered back from the force of the impact.

  I had managed to reach the handle of the Boxer and had inched it into my hand while my attacker had been preoccupied with prying an angry feline from his face.

  Lensky looked down at the gaping wounds in his stomach and sighed. "I liked this body. But soon I won't need it anymore." He glanced over at Dagda's still form. "Too bad though. I think crawling under the skin of that one would've been fun. The one you call Lensky is still in here, you know. His screams are delicious. I bet her screams would be even more so. Maybe I'll make her scream anyway, once I've ascended to my rightful place. Consider it my final gift to you. Now, where were we? Oh right, I was killing you."