Lupus was the last to move in. The room was deceptive, seemingly large and small at the same time, its curved walls and furniture competing with each other for attention. There were no seats, the chamber being very Spartan, practically barren aside from a hulking bookcase resting against a far wall and a brown fur rug spread over the centre of the floor.
Seraphim saw them all wondering where they should position themselves. “I do not have chairs and luxuries in here, my kin, and the carpet you see there is a forbidden space”.
Valkyrie didn’t seem to understand, despite her insightful prowess.
“In here, we stand as equals. Having a seated audience and an upright speaker is below us; we owe each other our respect and attention” Seraphim explained.
His sister nodded. “This way no-one can reign supreme…wise thinking, brother” she replied honestly. It was the closest thing to warmth Lupus had ever heard her use with anyone but Calla.
One by one, they assumed their standing positions in a perfect circle. For once, Lupus found himself agreeing with Valkyrie, though he had no desire to use her human name; they were people now, even if she did still consider him the same fool she claimed he was on Gothica.
Once he joined his brethren, Seraphim opened the discussion with a focussed voice. “I know many of you have wondered about our origins, how we got here. Already Hydra has shared his questions with me and I have answered all I can. But now we are many and the questions are many more” he began.
The others shared looks with each other, some surprised by his awareness of their thirst for understanding, some disturbed by it. “Tell us what you know, brother, we will hear it all” Phoenix urged softly.
“I can’t promise it won’t pain your hearts; the scale of this all is almost incomprehensible, even to the likes of us” his lips curled in faint amusement at how legitimate he made himself sound. He might have known more than the others, maybe even more than the Lion, but he was still their equal and he was the Last, not the First. “It began with Ourellius and the Alpha Dimension”.
There were whispers and looks of reverence over that name. It was the first time they had heard it since the Blessing, and precious few of them had minds strong enough to remember its meaning.
“He was the Primegenitor, was he not?” Calla asked, her memory apparently unaffected. Yet she asked with curiosity rather than knowledge, it seemed.
Seraphim gave her an uplifting look. “He still is, as far as we can know…” he answered. “None of the legions can say where He is, or what He’s doing. I know all too well it’s hard for you to remember, my dearest family, but the Auranair gave us clues”.
Lupus had little patience for riddles. Whatever Seraphim knew, it was not something to be dangled in front of them.
“He was the first of the gods,” Lupus told everyone. He wasn’t going to allow Seraphim to hold back on what the others deserved to know. This wasn’t a memory game; they had to share what they knew without unnecessary ceremony or riddles. “He created His children; Vermillion and the Cosmos Court…even the dark god Invidius.” He bit his lip at mentioning the name after chastising Seraphim before, but there was precious little way to ensure the gravitas of the conversation. Either Solitaire didn’t hear it, or she chose not to, but she winced all the same. They would have been surprised at the extent of his contribution, but he was the First and just as likely to know their history as Seraphim.
“I remember…” Oz rubbed his neck, as though as sudden weight of memory came flooding back. “She told us so much, didn’t She? I can’t believe I forgot it all…is my mind weak?”
“We all did, brother. We had to, in some ways” Valkyrie reassured him.
“It was for the best – we needed to grow with our own minds free” Solitaire said, her voice energized and yet profound.
“But what happened? How did Ourellius allow His children to start a civil war?” Samael asked, his tone for once free of petulance and full of remorse.
Seraphim sighed heavily, reluctant to talk about the Progenitor and what happened to His children. “He allowed them all to have their own worlds, to create their own people in whichever way they chose. Vermillion and the Cosmos Court were able to use their energies to forge the most beautiful things, their mastery over their own powers flawless and perfect. But the Great Enemy…He was unable, jealous, bitter…and He failed to bring His brilliant imagination to fruition in the same harmonious way His kin could.”
Seraphim let the scene fill their minds and let them come to an understanding of what came before the civil war between the gods. Then, looking at his brethren with eyes graver than they had yet seen from him, he continued. “He became sour and hateful towards the others, envious of their creations and everything He couldn’t achieve until one day His disappointment became fuel for His narcissistic revenge. He finally realised what He was good at – creating evil, ugly things, which were nothing short of hell-bent on the corruption and destruction of everything pure and natural”. Then, even sadder, Seraphim said “And when the others tried to help Him, he declared war on them all and the Alpha Dimension knew ruin and death for the first time”.
Despite the truth of his words, the Apostles found it impossible to comprehend a god turning against their own. Only Hydra seemed willing not to object in outrage, but Lupus was sure he had done when he first heard the story.
“Why did Ourellius not stop this?” Nightingale asked, shocked by the failure of the Primegenitor, the most powerful being in all the Dimensions, if not the creator of all existence, to stop the Great Enemy.
“He went to fight a bigger war; one that only He could win, but one that He promised the Auranair He must” Lupus intervened, realising that the Apostles were starting to grow hostile towards Seraphim, the innocent messenger.
Cerberus was amazed. “What could have been more important than a war between the gods?”
“Something even we are not privy to” Seraphim told him. All heads returned to the Twelfth. “No matter how things happened and how this war came to be, what Ourellius left to confront is beyond any of us; He would not have left the Auranair and the others without due reason. Whatever war He fought, or still fights, we should be glad it isn’t our own; the right pieces are in the right games” he said, hoping to put an end to this ugly part of the discussion.
“But how did the war even escalate so far if the Great Enemy was alone in His evil? He had no allies, did He?” Oz asked, ignoring Seraphim’s wish to move on. Ironically, the question allowed for exactly that.
“By the time the Cosmos Court recognised Him as a threat and no longer a pariah to ignore, His abilities had grown beyond their own. Anger has a way of making gods powerful beyond humility, it seems” Lupus began. “He found a way to unlock the Underrealm, a singular layer that cushions and rests beneath every dimension ever created. It is reserved for the most obscene of creations; evil beasts, wretches… living sentience turned monstrous and horrific”.
“And that is where the first Phantoms came from…” Samael concluded.
Lupus nodded at him respectfully enough. “Yes…and then He used His own energies to create His armies, unleashing every spirit in the Underrealm and hosting them in the bestial bodies He made for them. By the time Vermillion and the others were able to respond, it was too late. Outnumbered, overwhelmed, the majority had to sacrifice their own lives just to release enough of their own energy to create the Black Guardians. There were only a thousand legions created and they were supposed to be enough.
When they challenged their fallen brother on His own world, most of the gods were already dead. Only another two remained with Vermillion and each of the three led a Divine Legion of White Guardians, made long before the civil, or as it is known amongst the legions as the Deian War, began. They belonged to Ourellius Himself” Lupus explained.
“Oh, how I remember, sweet brother. Adorioth, Beaution and Divinios…I miss them…” Solitaire replied sadly, as though she had never forgotten the memory
of them but only now faced the tragedy of losing them.
Every face, even the Lion’s and Seraphim’s, looked at her in puzzlement.
“Sister, who were they?” Valkyrie asked, jumping in before anyone else could.
“The Three Noble Wolves, of course” Solitaire smiled, looking at Calla expectantly as if to suggest she already knew. Strangely, Calla’s blank expression was enough to tell Lupus it was no surprise to her after all.
“Of course! How could we forget that?” Oz laughed in frustration. Why did they forget so much? What else had been lost from their half-human minds?
“How could wolves be noble?” Samael asked, immediately regretting that he forgot his sister took the form of one. Calla shot him a sharp look that told him to choose his words more carefully. Lupus saw him actually gulp in reaction.
“They were His pets…His friends…the Primegenitor’s favourites” Solitaire said, a tone in her voice eerily like nostalgia. A false memory, Lupus reasoned. It was clear she wasn’t going to elaborate, though, and no-one quite knew how to make her. Even Phoenix who had spent the most time with her didn’t have a way to get a straight-forward answer.
“What happened on Colossi?” Calla asked, forgetting the insult Samael had dealt her, unwilling to stay angry at him any longer.
“It was a slaughter” Seraphim bluntly replied. He saw no reason to cushion the truth. “The legions were outnumbered a thousand to one. Vermillion’s last siblings were killed in the Alpha Dimension, their legions scattered across the world beyond Her influence.
It’s uncertain what happened next, but one thing is clear; Vermillion knew She couldn’t win the war alone and preserve the Dimension long enough for Ourellius to return and end it. She ordered the legions to activate a Hollow Bomb, a device with a forbidden purpose…but it was necessary to break the Elysian Law. The explosion it wrought formed a controlled black hole – no easy feat – and it hurled everything, the Phantoms and legions, their fleets, everyone, into this Dimension.”
“Wait…the Elysian Law?” Gaia asked. It was the first time she spoke up, but this time she couldn’t wait for someone else to bring her questions to light.
Seraphim stopped in his tracks. He could only just hide his aggravation at her sudden interest and her interruption. “Yes…it was the law that all the gods wore sworn to follow; only, the Great Enemy ignored it outright. It proscribed them many rules, too many to go into now, but the use of a Hollow Bomb, or an otherwise forced entry into another Dimension, was forbidden by the Primegenitor. Unfortunately for us, breaking that oath was the Auranair’s only choice; She could not allow the Alpha Dimension to be destroyed.”
When She arrived here, She had to be reborn. The Great Enemy had already reduced his energy and used it for his armies, but She still remained too strong; where the Phantoms were made by one god, the Guardians were made by many. The Dimension would have shattered if She wasn’t born again from its own fabric. She chose this world; isolated, hard to reach, a recluse…perfect for a symbol of hope to be made invulnerable. When She re-joined the fight…it was all but over. When She realised which Dimension She had brought the war into, She cried. This galaxy is special, my brothers and sisters; it was the first favourite of Ourellius and here He created the human race.”
“So She had no choice? She had to sacrifice Herself?” Cerberus asked, eager to uncover the last shred of their origins.
“It was the only way,” Lupus clarified. “Without Her death, She wouldn’t have had the release of energy needed to create the time-lock around Colossi. Make no mistake, a goddess She was, but She could only delay the inevitable. Sooner or later, the Great Enemy will be released, but now we have the time to prepare for Him. It’s why we were made Her Apostles, so that we could lead the legions in her stead, together, to end this struggle with a strength unseen since the war began. We are twelve demi-gods against a dark, evil beast that has reduced Himself from deity to abomination. She meant for us to win and I demand that we do, because we can.”
There was a solemn silence before the others replied in unison, “Wennorii, arl ka-rine”.
Together, us Twelve it sounded in their heads.
Nobody said anything for a palpable few moments, the momentous rediscovery of their past almost too much to process. Nightingale was visibly more perplexed than the others, however, and Lupus was the first to see it.
“What bothers you so, Nightingale?” he asked sensitively.
She looked at him, unsure how to answer his question. She knew it was her own insecurities cropping up, but she had to know.
“Why were we chosen?” she asked. “To be Her Apostles, I mean” she added when she saw that no-one followed her implication.
“I don’t think that’s something any of us will understand, is it?” Calla answered, but it wasn’t enough.
“We should know, though. What were any of us before the Blessing? We were just ordinary humans, free to have any future we wanted. We didn’t ask for this…” Nightingale finally broke and wept. She was angry at her fate. She wanted a normal life and who among them could blame her?
“None of us did, sister…” Lupus said, “But we cannot change who we are now. Nor can we deny our fate and duty”.
“Duty? Where do you get your sense of that, brother, when the goddess who would have us fight Her war is gone?” Samael challenged him once again, hungry for the right answer to make sense of it all.
“It’s a feeling you get in the core of you, Samael. You will know it when the enemy presents itself to you, thirsty to destroy everything you love…” Lupus said, not half bitterly.
“He’s right,” Gaia agreed, interjecting before another argument broke out between them. “Whether we would have picked this path given the choice or not, we are on it now. We owe it to our own humanity to use our powers to protect the Empire”.
It seemed to have the uniting effect she desired. “I call for an oath, then” Oz declared.
The others looked at him in bewilderment at his sudden air of authority, but he didn’t let it faze him. “We declare it right here, now and forever” he continued. “We fight until our end, whether good or bad, to protect the race that birthed us and end the Phantom threat for all time”.
Solitaire immediately threw her hand into the middle of their standing circle. “I swear it” she said vehemently, a maturity in her tone that caught the rest of them off-guard.
They each, turn in turn, offered their own hands in agreement with hers, all of them swearing the oath.
“The oath is made. We will protect the Empire until the Great Enemy, or each of us, is dead” Lupus said, each of the Apostles showing their assent in different ways.
“My Grace Phoenix!” an urgent voice called from the corridor running into the study. So intent were they with each other they had all forgotten a world existed outside that room.
Phoenix turned in time to see the legionnaire calling her name arrive through the doorway, breathing heavily as though he had run to her from orbit.
“What is it, Florian?” she asked the Guardian.
“My Grace…Commander Akurei sends word; the Phoenix Palace is under attack. Our Fireblades call for immediate aid” the man named Florian replied. From the way his armour was fashioned like Valerian’s, an odd device featured here and there, Lupus reasoned he was the Recon Master of the 77th.
The twelve Apostles looked at the tired legionnaire in disbelief. How could such a thing be possible? Lupus of all was most surprised, believing the last of the rogue enemy to have been wiped out in his Purge Crusades. Perhaps they had been hiding on Phoenix’s world all along, though, inactive until now.
“Tell me quickly Florian, what force assaults my home?” Phoenix demanded.
“At least a cohort of Gore Princes, my Grace…” he panted.
The Phantom rank sent a shiver of familiarity up Lupus’ spine. His memories of Dystopian were far too recent and he had no desire to confront that form of foe again. It wasn’t out of coward
ice or weakness, but out of sheer disgust. Yet, that Phantom archetype had been new to his legion. Did the 77th see them at the Battle of Colossi? What role did the 617th play, if not at the forefront with them?
“And something worse, but even I’m unsure what it is” Florian added without arrogance. “We have lost the outer villages already; it won’t be long until the Palace itself falls under siege if we do not return in time”.
“How many ships?” Phoenix asked curtly, to the point.
Now Florian truly came unstuck. “None, my Grace”. He seemed as nonplussed now as when he heard it himself the first time.
“There have always been beasts in the dark, but none like those” Solitaire replied, wide-eyed and suspicious.
Phoenix was shaking her head in resignation. “Their methods are no concern to us now, only their stain on our world” she said.
Florian was clearly eager for a command, but he knew not to press the Apostles into action. In less than a moment’s breath Phoenix concluded her private deliberation and looked at him with determination. “We shall go, immediately. Gather what forces we have here and spare no legion of mine to stay behind. Tell Akurei to prepare the Burning Spectre, there is no time to waste”.
Florian hurried off with his orders as she turned to her brothers and sisters. “I do not ask any of you to come with me, this fight is my own, but I must leave this place without any delay” she told them.
“No question need be voiced, Phoenix. You have my ships and legions” Lupus answered without hesitation.
“As you do mine, sister” Calla agreed.
“It’s my world too – you’ll need my help to kill this enemy” Solitaire shook her head, tsking like a child offering her help for a task she didn’t fully understand the nature of.
The Deian War: Vermillion's Apostles Page 26