The Balance Omnibus

by Alan Baxter

‘There’s nothing...’ Petra began.

  Isiah stepped into the pool and dragged the first body to him, cranking its head to one side. ‘Nothing,’ he snapped and vertebrae in the poor creature’s neck snapped too.

  Petra growled her own horror and stepped into the hot, fetid pool. She drove a boot heel hard into the throat of the first Custodi and moved mechanically onto the next, not pausing to think about the lives that these poor souls might once have had.

  Cai Wu, high on the valley wall, felt the barriers between the Ordo Novus Cruor and his Magi begin to falter. He sent out his mind, beseeching the ancient allies of his people. ‘Attack the valley,’ he yelled aloud, bounding down towards the camp, showing not a year of his advanced age. ‘Carve through the Cultists and head for the main event!’

  Umbra Magi poured into the camp, punching holes through the rapidly failing wards. The Sorcerer, feeling his powerbase crumbling, howled. He turned to the Gathered members, pointing left and right at Magi running into the camp. ‘Kill them all!’ He seemed to age by the second as Cult members peeled off in every direction, knives raised, a bloodlust in their veins. Umbra Magi began the fight of their lives, drawing on every second of their training as they were swarmed, outnumbered several times over. Fighting skills and magical ability flowed and were tested as they tried to repel the Cultists to reach the horrendous ritual taking place before the large barn.

  The sky was rent by a sound from another world, a screeching wail that echoed inside and outside the mind. Thick, deep claps could be heard as two huge, leathery wings bore a dragon down from the deep blue. With a roar it raked through a hoard of Cultists, claws and teeth removing them by the dozen. For a moment the entire battle stood stunned, Magi and Cultists alike gaping in awe at the mighty creature as it swept up, banked on a wingtip and soared back towards the valley floor. Cai Wu smiled. With a roar of triumph from the Magi and screams of sheer terror from the Cultists, the fight was met anew.

  The Sorcerer felt himself being torn by the power he desperately tried to contain. His Custodi were under attack, he could feel their numbers and power spiralling away. His thousands of devout followers were distracted from their prayers by the need to hold back these mages and they were dying by the score. They even had a dragon on their side. He roared a visceral howl of pure rage, calling every curse he knew upon this man that would not die. This man that rallied these mages against him. But he refused to fail now.

  He drew all the magic he could through the amplification of the dragon’s tooth he held, a tiny reflection now of the power he saw under the command of his enemies. ‘Ignore everything else,’ he yelled against a gathering, howling wind. ‘This moment, this place, is all that matters. The Embodied Blood and Yath-vados himself will lead things from here.’ Weakened, aged as the unholy strength of the Custodi that were his power died one by one, the Sorcerer collapsed to one knee. He stared with desperation at his generals and everything his life had led to.

  The Optimates stared, chanting fervently, as this creature that their Dominus called the Embodied Blood staggered forward and drew the knives from the frame either side of Faith. She screamed and thrashed against her bonds, her eyes wild, terrified. The haze and shimmer of RealmShift began to encircle Faith and the Embodied Blood as MageSign swelled. The energy, a gale through the camp, ripped tents from the ground. Clothes and pans tumbled through the air, shouts of pain and effort came from the Magi and the cultists as they battled around the camp, the dragon swooping and devouring, scooping up cultists as they tried to flee. And throughout it all, piercing through every other sound, was Faith’s scream as the Embodied Blood raised the knives.

  Isiah and Petra staggered from the pool, looking at the limp, broken bodies of the Custodi. Their eyes rose to meet and Isiah pulled Petra into an strong embrace. ‘That was a mercy for them,’ he whispered.

  Petra nodded against his shoulder. ‘I know.’ Her voice was strong. ‘Now I need to do the same thing to those bastard Optimates and this Dominus himself.’

  Before Isiah could answer he was rocked by a familiar presence in his mind. NOW THINGS ARE CLEAR. THEIR INTENTION IS WORSE THAN EVEN YOU IMAGINED.

  Raising a hand to Petra, pointing up for want of a better explanation, Isiah answered angrily. ‘So now you’re on side?’

  WHEN WHAT WAS NOT KNOWN BECOMES KNOWN, A COURSE OF ACTION BECOMES CLEAR.

  ‘And what would you have me do?’ Isiah’s voice dripped sarcasm.

  THEY ARE NOT TRYING TO RAISE A NEW GOD IN HIS OWN REALM. THEY ARE TRYING TO MANIFEST A GOD IN THE MORTAL REALM.

  Isiah was staggered. ‘You fucking what?’ Petra’s eyes widened with concern. Isiah shook his head. ‘No time. We have to go.’ He took her hands and Travelled.

  Flashes of light and arcs of pure magical energy crackled through the howling gale of power surrounding the Channel and the Embodied Blood. The Optimates and their Dominus were down on their knees, heads bowed, chanting in prayer to their God. The Dominus himself, his ancient power sucked away, could barely support himself. Faith’s body, glowing and pulsating with energy, charged like a battery of raw magic, arched off the wooden frame in rhythmic seizures. She screamed.

  Isiah and Petra arrived in the clearing and found themselves in a storm of mythic proportions. Cultists battled with Mages all around as the Umbra Magi attempted to reach the heart of the ritual. Bodies lay all around, cultists were running for their lives. Overhead a dragon turned and dived. Petra’s eyes went wide, awestruck, as she took in the scene around her. The Umbra Magi, though fewer in number several times over, had ability far beyond anything the lowly cult members could counter. Backed up by the creature they revered, the Magi advanced.

  Petra turned to face the ritual before the barn and her scream of denial and rage mingled with Faith’s own as Isiah roared defiance and rushed at the blood red creature before Faith. But it was like trying to run into a wind tunnel, the RealmShift a maelstrom of energy encircling them both, the MageSign an electric surge in the air making every nerve sing. The Embodied Blood raised its arms up high and plunged two shining, wicked blades into Faith’s throat and threw all of its body weight behind them, carving Faith’s body open from neck to pubis. Blood and entrails billowed out and her scream stopped dead as the Embodied Blood stood in the spray from her body, absorbed the flood of blood and magic, and focussed the RealmShift.

  Isiah, Petra and the Optimates were thrown back as a wave of energy pulsed out and the Embodied Blood swelled and grew massive. Muscles bulged through the crimson skin as the creature became a huge parody of a man, standing over the dripping remains of Faith and the two backpackers. It leaned back its head and roared a thunderous laugh to the firmament. The energy emanating from a god manifest on Earth scorched Isiah as he picked himself up from the sand and stood defiant in the face of the giant, blood red deity. The god leaned down and stared hard into Isiah’s eyes and laughed again, foul breath like a furnace wind across his face. ‘Look what I have become!’ Yath-vados roared.

  Isiah staggered back, disbelieving. ‘No.’ His eyes were not lying to him as he stared into the eyes of this god and he knew that Yath-vados was just a name. An irrelevance. He stared into the eyes of this god and he knew who lurked within.

  The god laughed again. ‘I’m glad you’re here. I would love for you to be the first thing I crush! Say my name!’

  Isiah shook his head again. ‘No. This can’t be true. How can you have gained this much power.’

  ‘I owe it all to you, Interferer. You taught me everything I know. Say my name!’

  ‘This can not be true.’

  ‘Oh, but it is. Satan bores easily and I put my time in Hell to good use. I whispered into the mind of one person that I knew truly worshipped blood and I embodied that worship. Say my name!’

  Isiah balled his fists, gathered every bit of energy he could and rushed the god head on. As he ran forward he roared, ‘This time I will kill you myself, Samuel Harrigan!’

  21

  Isiah barr
elled into the god, blue arcs of raw energy crackling in every direction. The Optimates rose to their feet. Their Dominus, ancient and withered, unable to rise, looked upon his god and smiled. Isiah appeared like a child before the massive, red god, a tiny David before an invincible Goliath. He rained blows against the deity’s legs, pulsed raw energy up into the god’s body, before one sweep of a giant crimson arm swept him up and away, tumbling through the air. He landed with a thud on the ochre sand.

  The senior Optimates lifted their Dominus to his feet and stood in a semi-circle before their god as Isiah leapt up, face twisted in anger and pain. Petra rushed to his side and Cai Wu, along with a handful of Magi, joined them. The cultists, routed by fear of the Magi, fear of the dragon and terrified of the scarlet behemoth that stood before them, were enfeebled by what they saw. Broken by what they had done, they ran away or collapsed to the ground in supplication. Those still with fight in them gritted their teeth at the Magi throughout the camp. The dragon soared up, glittering in the outback sun, scanning the desert for cultists trying to flee.

  Yath-vados, Samuel Harrigan deified by his own organisation, stood tall and laughed. He swept a hand over the heads of the highest ONC members standing before him. ‘Look at my faithful, Interferer! These people have given me strength. The thousands under their control have given me power and the ancient magics of their Dominus made it possible for me to rise. Now this Realm is mine!’

  The Sorcerer looked up into the face of his god, his expression one of disbelief. The other Optimates were equally stunned, but they stood defiant. ‘Samuel?’ the Sorcerer yelled, incredulous. ‘What the fuck have you done?’

  Yath-vados laughed again. ‘I have become far more than Samuel Harrigan. I am every inch the god you believed in. The god you created. Everything I promised you can be true. I was double-crossed and sent to Hell by Lucifer himself, but I had the knowledge. I used the teachings of this Interferer and I have risen again, greater than anything this world has ever seen before.’

  The voice of the Balance boomed in Isiah’s mind. HE MUST BE DESTROYED. ONE GOD CAN NOT BE PERMITTED TO CONTROL THE MORTAL REALM.

  Isiah scowled. ‘No shit!’ He looked to Cai Wu and Petra. ‘It’s the humans we have to take out. We have no chance against him. Finish the humans, the Sorcerer, Frank, all of them. The more of them we kill, the weaker he will become. Tell your Magi to kill anyone here that is praying to this abomination. These deaths now will seem as nothing compared to what might happen if he survives.’ He raised his hands above his head and yelled out, his voice thundering between the Realms. ‘This is where you guys step in, for fuck’s sake!’

  The air electrified again as metallic, harsh, hazy flashes of RealmShift popped and snapped all around. Gods from every pantheon of human belief began to appear. The Sorcerer and his generals stood momentarily stunned. Isiah pushed Petra and Cai Wu forward. ‘The Optimates!’

  Cai Wu yelled a battle cry and ran straight at the Sorcerer, Isiah and his Magi hot on his heels. Yath-vados looked around, his eyes briefly meeting those of numerous deities, angels, demons. Shiva stood snarling, Gabriel wreathed in flame, Thor with lightning sparking from his hammer. Yahweh and Allah rolled in like thunder clouds, distorting through numerous forms, together and apart, the same and separate. Legba stood before Gede and the Voodoo Loa, Ra stood blazing like the sun itself, Zamna of the Mayans snarled, claws like giant razors raised before his black face. The Morrigan turned to look at Isiah, one gnarled finger penetrating him from afar. ‘You fucking owe me, bastard!’

  Hundreds of gods began to appear, above and around, the air cracking with their presence. And Yath-vados looked upon the horde and laughed. ‘I am not some avatar vomited from the imagination of my faithful. I have made this my Realm. Your power here is nothing compared to mine!’ He raised two fists above his head. ‘I am invincible in this place. I will rule this place!’

  He brought his fists down, smashing them into the earth before Durga astride a terrible, snarling tiger and Gwan Yu, his blade flashing in the sunlight. They raised their weapons and the battle was met. Durga’s tiger leapt for the throat of Yath-vados only to be batted aside like an irritating fly. Gwan’s blade sang through the air, cleaving into the red god’s side. But his strength was nothing compared to that of a god in its own Realm. Yath-vados roared in anger, wrenching the bladed staff from his side and used it to slam Gwan Yu into the red earth.

  ‘This should never have been allowed to happen,’ roared Odin as he collided head on with Yath-vados. The echo of their clash flattened brush for miles.

  As the avatars of all the gods swarmed over Yath-vados, Isiah and the Magi met the Optimates head on. Isiah grinned maliciously at the fear in Filthy Frank’s eyes. This time there would be no underhand sneak attack. This was face to face, immediate and real. As Frank placed one foot back, bracing himself and drawing his blade deep across his arm, Isiah leaped forward, one fist barrelling forward like a freight train. Before Frank could muster his magic, Isiah’s knuckles crashed into his face, shattering his cheekbone. He roared in pain and frustration, bringing his knife up, trying to sink it deep between Isiah’s ribs. But Isiah could see him this time, feel him. He drew power and energy to his body and Frank’s knife bounced off skin harder than steel. As Frank staggered backwards Isiah stepped through and spun his body, letting his arm whip out in a devastating spinning backfist. The other side of Frank’s face was crushed, the cheekbone, orbit, jaw shattered into a thousand pieces as he was lifted by the punch and sent sprawling to the ground.

  Slurring and mumbling, desperately trying to speak the foul words of his magic through his ruined face, Frank’s eyes were bright, wide, terrified as Isiah strode towards him. Even over the noise of gods fighting, Frank heard Isiah’s voice. ‘May the universe return your actions threefold!’ Drawing back one fist, elbow high behind his head, Isiah dropped to one knee and drove that fist down into Frank’s chest. The Optimates’s sternum split and Isiah’s fist drove clear through him into the earth below. Frank’s eyes bulged and his mouth spread brokenly in a silent howl of pain and anguish, his body arched and tensed around Isiah’s arm. One hand clawed weakly to Isiah’s throat, then the cultist flopped to the ground, his last breath hissing wetly through limp lips.

  Petra’s voice slashed through Isiah’s consciousness, inside his mind as well as through the air. ‘Behind you!’

  Isiah stood and spun around, feeling immediately the presence bearing down on him. As he turned he whipped one foot up and around, his heel crushing into the side of Raul’s head. Isiah had no concern of the power he was using, his preternatural physical strength and his command of the energy of the universe flowed unchecked. The side of Raul’s head folded in on itself, blood sprayed from his mouth and ear and he was dead instantly, a rag doll that used to be a man hitting the ground a second later.

  Through his rage Isiah surveyed the scene. Gods battled Yath-vados, trying to overwhelm him with numbers and all manner of magic and weapons. His flesh was torn and bleeding, but he laughed as he thrashed and struck around himself, releasing waves and pulses of raw energy, casting ancient gods aside like toys.

  Beside Isiah, Cai Wu was locked in a psychic wrestle with the Sorcerer, their hands together, fingers intertwined. Petra was battling two Optimates that fought like a single unit, shouting to each other in English accents. Petra was holding her own, but not gaining an advantage. Cai Wu was slowly but surely overpowering the weakened Sorcerer.

  Isiah let some of his power flow into Cai Wu as he leaped to help Petra. The other Magi present overwhelmed Dieter and Lars. Cai Wu drew on Isiah’s gift and took the advantage. Releasing one hand from the Sorcerer’s he drew back his arm and drove straight fingers like steel into the old blood mage’s throat. The Sorcerer yelled a thick and liquid bark of pain and Cai Wu pulsed power and fists into him and he was gone.

  Isiah let a shield of solid magic slam into the two Optimates that were battling Petra. Occupied with her as they were it caught them by
surprise and flattened them. Isiah and Petra fell on one each, like wolves on the fold, synchronised, expert, and it was over.

  The roar of Yath-vados shook the ground beneath them as he smashed gods back to their Realms and stared at the bodies at his feet. ‘Your faithful are rapidly dropping in number and power, Harrigan’ Isiah shouted. ‘Your plan was audacious, but the universe will not allow it.’

  The god born of a mortal man condemned to Hell laughed again. ‘It has already allowed it. I am here. I am manifest and even now people run into the hills that have seen me, that truly believe in me. Can you really get them all? I only need a few of them to allow me to exist and if I exist here, then it is here that I am at my most powerful. You said it yourself, there is nothing stronger than a god in his own Realm.’

  Isiah sent his thoughts to Petra and Cai Wu. Go, all of you and your ally. Sweep the valley, kill them all. You must find as many of his faithful as you possibly can.

  Petra’s eyes narrowed. ‘And you?’ she demanded aloud.

  Isiah flashed her his most charming grin. ‘I think I need to have it out with old Samuel here.’

  ‘But how..?’

  Isiah leaned his head back and yelled. ‘If ever you had the opportunity to step in, now would be a good time!’

  The voice of the Balance boomed in Isiah’s mind. THE POWER OF ALL GODS MUST BE FOCUSSED. YOU ARE OUTSIDE THEM ALL, YOU KNOW THEM ALL. USE YOUR OWN POWER. DRAW THEM TOGETHER.

  And Isiah knew what to do. He looked around at the valley, gods from every aspect of human belief together, desperately battling something that threatened them all. He saw the Morrigan crouched over the body of Faith, weeping. The old woman looked up, piercing Isiah with her wet eyes. ‘Do it, you fuck,’ she snarled. Other gods turned to face Isiah, dropping their weapons, ceasing to fight.

  Yath-vados growled into the sudden silence and stillness. ‘What’s this?’

  Isiah turned again to Petra. ‘Go. Clean them up.’ He kissed her firmly and pushed her towards Cai Wu and away. He turned to face Yath-vados and opened his arms. A tiny human before a massive, blood red deity, and he let the universe in.