Summoned to Die

by C L Walker

  “Nope.” He finished his coffee and raised his hand for a waiter. The place didn’t have waiter service – there was a sign printed in a number of languages warning of it – but the waiter came over anyway. Alain ordered a repeat and the waiter nodded.

  “I know what’s coming,” I tried. “It has been seen. Erindis is trying to jump start her divinity, and she’s going to pull it off.”

  “And the world will shake and someone will take her down.” He shook his head slowly. “It wouldn’t be the first time. Hell, it wouldn’t be the hundredth. One day someone will succeed, but it won’t be her and it won’t be here.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked. I was starting to doubt the angel’s future memories. If she was wrong then I’d thrown myself into the void for nothing. Then again, I was going to kill myself anyway.

  “I can’t. Like I said, I can’t see the future. But I’ve been chained to the elder-gods for long enough, and I now have a comprehensive enough view of things to know that whatever happens, no matter what it is, we should never interfere.”

  “Ohm is coming back.” I expected my words to have more effect, to rattle him. To at least dislodge the smile on his punchable face. “Did you hear me?”

  “I told you, she’s dead.” The waiter returned and brought our coffees. He’d gone back and made them ahead of everyone else in the line. Nobody minded.

  “At some point after Erindis succeeds she is possessed by Ohm again. I know this. I know that Ohm smashes the worlds together, and I know that she fights a war with another one of you, a man. Hell, it might be you, for all I know.”

  “I’m not going to fight Erindis.”

  “Not Erindis. Ohm.” I was raising my voice, getting agitated. The man was being purposefully irritating, not hearing what I was saying. Anyone else would have been unconscious already.

  “Ohm is dead.”

  “The angel saw it.”

  That got his attention. That made him stop slurping on his tiny coffee and listen.

  “She saw the future,” I continued. “Ohm comes to the heaven, a thousand years from now, and she collects it to add to the world she has turned earth into. There is a war raging and only one other elder-god remains.”

  “Uhd.”

  “Whoever. The big point you should be paying attention to is the part where Ohm returns and breaks all your stuff.”

  That was my entire speech, delivered as non-violently as I had ever delivered a passionate request. If he didn’t go for it then I was going back into the void.

  He didn’t say anything right away, instead spending a moment to mull it over. He was a thoughtful man, a warrior who had learned that he needed to spend time thinking through his problems before lashing out. It was noble, and something I aspired to, but it was wasting precious time and I needed him to get over it.

  “When Ahn and Ehl created the world they put in place certain restrictions.” His coffee was finished again, the downside to such tiny cups. “They didn’t want to know the end result of their dark game ahead of time. They wanted free will, so they made it that nobody could see the future of earth. Not even us.”

  “Oracles,” I said. The single word was my entire argument; I’d seen oracles predict the future with stunning accuracy. My previous master had been an oracle and he’d been wrong, but that didn’t mean they were all wrong.

  “They don’t see the future,” Alain said. “Not like the angels. They live it, grow old in it and die in it, and then are reborn to the moment they began their little trick. It’s a cheater’s way to do statistics.”

  I didn’t know what he was saying, but he seemed to believe it. He hadn’t laughed in my face again, and that was better than nothing.

  “The angels can only see the future of their realm, but they do actually see the future. Everything is mapped out in advance, even the very end.”

  “And for this angel the very end was on earth. She saw Ohm.”

  He put his cup down and looked me in the eyes. He wasn’t smiling anymore.

  “When I assumed her place in the pantheon I made a rule, and it’s one I don’t like breaking. The elder-gods should not interfere in the business of the world. The world is a machine playing a game only a few can see, and the game needs to run its course without correction.”

  “Ohm is an elder-god,” I snapped back. “And she’s going to interfere no matter what your little rules say.”

  “And there is my problem.” He put his hands together in a steeple before his mouth, resting his elbows on the arms of the chair. “I can’t interfere, but if I don’t then she will.”

  “You believe me?”

  “I do, unfortunately. So what do I do?”

  “Put me back and let me finish it. Let me tell her what she’s going to do. She’ll stop on her own.”

  “But if I make an exception for this, then I will be tempted to make an exception for something else. There are people here that I have fought beside, that I consider, if not friends, then at least fellow travelers. Should I intervene for them too? It is a quandary I had hoped not to revisit.”

  I was on my feet in a moment, throwing the table across the room so I could grab his robe in one hand and raise my fist.

  “I don’t care,” I screamed in his face. “We don’t have time for this, you annoying old man.”

  “Watch yourself, Agmundr.” He was calm, unaffected by my outburst. None of the other patrons in the coffee shop had noticed my ranting either, and the ones in the path of the table had simply stepped out of the way.

  “No, you watch yourself. You’re signing your own death warrant. Worse, you’re signing off on everyone who gets in her way. Make a decision, now.”

  I stood on the battlefield of the heaven of the fish-people. Everything was frozen around me, angels screaming silently and demons in mid-swing, standing on enemies who would be dead in seconds. The plain was no longer one surface, one land; it had been torn apart by some powerful force and I could see the void between the chunks of land.

  Alain stood beside me. “I’ll have to think on this problem,” he said as he surveyed the carnage. “But you are right, and I can’t find fault with your logic. I’ve examined the angel’s testimony and she was telling the truth, which means I only have one way to go.”

  “This is the right decision,” I said. The tattoos were preparing for action, powering up in anticipation of what they were made for.

  “This really is the only one you’re getting from me.” He stepped between me and the remains of the plain, and it was like everything but him became a picture. Only he was real, and he was the only thing I could focus on. “Don’t call on me again. Don’t expect me to save you if you die. If you don’t pull this off and she comes back then I’ll face her myself.”

  “Get out of my way, old man. I have things to do.”

  He smiled, chuckled, and vanished. The war raced to life around me.

  Chapter 35

  We were winning, but it didn’t matter anymore.

  Buddy led the charge, a wave of hollow men and demons at his back. They tore through the enemy line, sweeping them away and crushing them beneath their feet.

  Someone had broken the heaven, though. Instead of a continuous plain that stretched to the horizon, the heaven was now a series of immense platforms, chunks of land floating in the air and drifting apart. The atmosphere of the heaven was being drawn into the void, creating a gale that tore at my clothes and knocked some off their feet.

  I sped up, racing to speak to Buddy. I ran between the warring sides, avoiding conflicts and keeping my eyes open for any sign of Erindis. She wasn’t there, and her absence was having the effect I’d hoped for, splitting her army and demoralizing them. They were angels, sworn to follow a god, and without her they were lost.

  “You’re alive,” Buddy said. He had just dispatched a fallen angel with a devastating blow to the head. He stood and wiped blood from his face, looking at me expectantly.

  “Where is she?”


  He was hurt, his leg torn open and his face covered in cuts and bruises. But he was standing and he was fierce, and I felt a moment of pride as he glared at me impatiently. Then I remembered who he had been before the battle started, and I felt only pity.

  “She blasted in here a few hours ago and destroyed half the army. Her side and ours. She was unhappy, to say the least.”

  “And then?” The battle raged around us but our side controlled the field. They were cleaning up stragglers more than anything, fighting the last holdouts.

  “And then she ran for the gate and we destroyed the world.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” I looked around at the disintegrating heaven, at the destruction wrought to keep my enemies from the gate. “We did this?”

  “I did it,” he said. I could see the pain in his eyes at the words, but he stood tall, owning his decision. “It was the only way to keep her from the gate.”

  “You tore the heaven apart? How?”

  “I took the heartstone and used its power against it. You’re not the only one who can break everything.”

  “So we’re drifting into the void?” A moment of panic gripped me, that I’d leapt from one sinking ship to another, and Alain was laughing his ass off somewhere in the ether.

  “No, Agmundr. I destroyed the heaven.”

  One of the pig demons ran by, his every step a minor earthquake that broke more chunks off the platform we were standing on. He leapt to another platform to face a large fallen angel – looking like the marriage between a bird and an enormous piano – who was kneeling in surrender. He gave it no quarter.

  “Shit,” I said.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Did you see where she went?”

  “Some other gate, I guess. If all she wanted was access to earth then there are other ways.” His eyes roamed the world, searching for the next enemy. I knew what that was like. “She won’t be taking her army, though.”

  “You’ve done well,” I said, swallowing my revulsion at the outcome. He’d been following orders and he’d made a tough choice. I couldn’t fault him for it; he’d punish himself for the rest of his life anyway.

  “No, I didn’t,” he replied, his look grim and purposeful. “Are we done here?”

  I didn’t know if he meant everyone or just us, if he was asking if he could call off the war or if he could return to it. I suspected the latter, and if that was true then I knew I’d broken him in a way that would never heal.

  I nodded and he turned away, preparing for his next move.

  She wasn’t there, and I didn’t think she’d find another gate to journey to earth. She thought I was gone, which meant there was nothing there for her. She wouldn’t want to give up but that only left her with one option: the mountaintop.

  She’d said she wasn’t ready for it yet, that she still had more building to do before taking on the power. But if she was desperate, cut off from the only source of what she thought she needed? She’d risk it, and to hell with the consequences.

  I wanted to go back to Fairbridge and check on the fight there. I hadn’t asked Buddy if any of her people had made it through, but I had to imagine some must have. Crossing through the gates was easy for the hollow men and they’d been doing it for thousands of years. All they’d need was proximity and a moment of peace.

  I spotted a knot of enemy resistance on a platform spinning through what was left of the sky. Hollow men had gathered in a shield formation, protecting each other from attacks. They were doing well and more were joining them, increasing their strength.

  I needed to recharge before finding Erindis, and I couldn’t leave the battle without making sure it was over. The tattoos burst into life and I headed toward the conflict.

  I leapt from platform to platform, sailing through the air over either endless blue sky or visions of the void. The heaven would be done for soon, swallowed and removed from the cosmos, and all to stop my wife.

  I should have killed her when I had the chance, I thought. I should never have saved her to begin with.

  The target platform spun in the air above me; everyone looked like they were standing on the ceiling as they fought the hollow men heading their way. The tattoos erected a shield and I jumped straight up. I gained speed as I closed the distance and felt the gravity of their piece of the heaven.

  I smashed into the center of the group and started punching. They were unprepared, some twisting to face me while other simply lowered their guard in surprise. I took out the shocked ones first.

  I barreled through them, smashing them out of the way and into the emptiness beyond the platform. Some raised a defense and I had to choose my attacks, but they were covered in blood and it fueled me; I speared them with lances made of pure magic and they died screaming.

  And then Peter stood in front of me, his ethereal sword at the ready. He was smiling through the blood coating his face, staring at me and waiting.

  “I killed you,” I growled, not slowing as I approached him. He twisted, deflecting the force of my charge so I ran past him, then moved in for the kill.

  The shield protected me, but it shattered as the sword bounced off it. I wouldn’t get lucky again.

  “I worship an elder-god,” he screamed. “She commands you die.”

  He stabbed at me and I stepped aside, grabbing the blade and trying to tear it from his hands. But it was a part of him and it was sharp, biting into my skin and getting stuck on the small bones of my hands.

  I let go and leapt back. The tattoos healed me as he came at me again, swinging the sword in a long arc and giving me time to react. I advanced on him, giving him no time to move. I tackled him and drove him to the ground, driving my knee into his side with all the force I had available.

  He popped, his mid-section bursting like a ripe fruit. My clothes were bathed in the putrid flesh within.

  He was dead, his muscles atrophied and his organs rotting. Yet he continued to fight, despite everything. He threw me off and rose to his feet in a single movement, so much stronger than any other hollow man.

  “I am immortal,” he said. “And you are dead.”

  He attacked again, too quick for any elegance, swinging the sword and hoping for the best.

  I couldn’t kill him and I couldn’t spend the time tearing him apart. His squad was routed and he was fighting on his own; I had done what I came to do.

  It was time to run.

  I turned and sped up. The broken heaven slowed to a crawl around me as I ran for the nearest working gate, desperate to get there before it too was closed by the upheaval in the heaven.

  Peter was right behind me, screaming insanity and swiping at anyone who came near, friend or foe.

  I made for the gate and dove through it, into the HND, rolling on the blasted plain and rising to my feet still running. Peter crashed through behind me, almost as quick as I was.

  The head of the demon appeared behind him a moment later and grabbed him, crushing him before eating his remains.

  I didn’t wait to see if it finally killed him; I suspected it wouldn’t, and I didn’t want to waste what little time I had.

  I dove through the next gate, and the next, heading for the mountaintop.

  Chapter 36

  Turmoil rocked the heavens near earth. Stragglers from the enemy forces were still making their way toward the battle, while hollow men escaping the carnage ran the other way. The souls of the dead were caught in the middle, suffering the extremes of terrified fighters.

  Peter appeared behind me again, his body a mess of twisted limbs and open wounds. He held his sword steady, though, and he was focused on me.

  I switched to the hells as soon as I could, following a path I knew would lead me to the mountaintop. If Erindis wasn’t there I would at least have all the magical power I needed to put a stop to the hollow man once and for all. I’d burn him to ash and see if he could come back from it.

  Even the hells were feeling the effects of the battle. Small bands of demons fought holl
ow men, and I couldn’t tell which side was mine and which was hers. They were brutal, tearing each other apart and laughing in the rain of blood that followed.

  The hells began to flash past too quickly to make out, and Peter was still there, my shadow through the afterlives. He was at least as fast as me and far hardier, but I couldn’t let him catch me. Not yet.

  Demons stepped in the way, to try to help or hinder; it didn’t matter, and I smashed through them all. Peter did the same, barely pausing to dispatch anything that tried to stop him.

  I burst into the hell that had been my birthplace, and headed for the mountaintop. Lightning flashed in the dark sky from the clouds swirling over it as Peter appeared behind me, still advancing, still gaining.

  Erindis was there, waiting for me. I could feel her presence, as I’d felt Ohm’s before she died. The world seemed to bend toward her in some higher dimension, like flowers turning toward the light or objects sucked in by gravity.

  I raced up the mountainside and made it to the pools of blood. Erindis had her eyes closed, hovering six feet from the ground. I put my hand in the blood and was reborn.

  I turned to Peter as he made it to the top, raised my hands, and blasted him with magical fire. He tumbled backward, away from me and down the mountain again. I gave chase; he needed to die.

  He got up and his sword formed in his hand. Very little flesh was left on him that wasn’t damaged. It didn’t slow him down and it didn’t seem to hurt.

  “What are you?” I said, stopping outside his attack range.

  “I am my god’s warrior.”

  I attacked, moving quickly, erecting a shield designed to encase him when he hit it, to trap him and let me finish what I’d started. It hit as he tried to defend himself, and he fell to the ground twitching, screaming in agony, wrapped in energy.

  “You picked the wrong side,” I said, and crushed him with the shield. All his bones broke as one, his flesh liquefying and running off his form. His face vanished in a spray of gore. I poured more power into the spell, an overwhelming amount of power that ensured there was nothing left of him when it was done.