Ragnarok: The Fate of Gods

by Jake La Jeunesse

  No sooner had the engine stopped than the woman grabbed Zeke and threw him out of the car. She was strong, and he wasn’t expecting it. He fell to the stone floor. “What was that for?”

  Next she did the same to Daniel. He put up more resistance and landed on his feet. “Funny sort of hospitality you have. Save us from the dragon to beat us up yourself?”

  “Silence,” she bellowed. Still confused by the harsh treatment, the group obeyed. Ariel and Jack hurried out of the car before they were thrown out. “You’re going to Lord Gabriel. He’ll know what to do with you.”

  The woman led them through the caves, followed by a platoon of soldiers with spears. She had taken their weapons. They were prisoners. Now they were tied and being pushed into another large cavern. This one was not used for parking. It was ornate. Well carved and decorated. A thick carpet covered the floor.

  This was a throne room.

  Ornate though it was, it showed signs of wear. The carpet was discolored in the center. The torches burned weak. The throne was poorly carved from stone. On it sat a burly, barrel-chested man with wild hair and a thick beard. When he stood up, Zeke saw his cloak was made from the same green material as the woman’s belt.

  Dragon hide.

  This was their king, Lord Gabriel. And he had slain dragons.

  “Muriel!” he said warmly, opening his arms to their captor. “You’ve returned.” He caught her in a strong embrace then looked suspiciously at the small group of prisoners. “Who are they?”

  “Father, we’ve captured the Karellan’s dragon trainers!”

  Ariel was outraged at the sudden accusation. “What?”

  Zeke leaned in and whispered, “Have you been moonlighting at the zoo?”

  “Wonderful,” laughed Gabriel. “How did you do it?”

  “It was easy, once their dragon turned on them.”

  Gabriel paced slowly, examining the prisoners. He laughed. “The tide is turning!”

  Jack stepped forward. Spears shot up around him. “Excuse me, sir. I think there’s been a mistake. We aren’t dragon trainers, and we certainly don’t work for the Karellan.”

  “Silence!” Gabriel bellowed. Jack jumped back, pricking himself on a spear point. “You will speak when I address you.”

  “Then address us already so we can speak!” shouted Ariel furiously.

  Gabriel glared at her in silence for a long time, then spoke intensely. “I should have expected such impertinence from a servant of the Karellan.” He paused. “So speak, then. What is your business in this region?”

  “We’re headed to Rome,” Daniel blurted.

  “No one goes there except the Karellan and his monsters,” Muriel answered quickly.

  “We’re trying to stop him,” Zeke explained.

  Ariel added, “We were attacked by the monster.”

  “They’re lying. I saw them summon it,” Muriel told her father.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Zeke said, astounded by the accusation.

  The woman turned to face them. She stood tall. “We saw a fifth member of your party. He summoned the dragon.”

  Daniel laughed. “You think he was with us?”

  Zeke was growing impatient, despite the troop of lancers at his back. “If you had bothered to watch what was happening, you would have noticed that he was no friend of ours. He wasn’t even human. That malak summoned the damned dragon to kill us!”

  The soldiers raised their spears to keep him in check, but Gabriel motioned for them to draw back. “The Karellan has many demons at his command, but if you say he now enlists the help of the malak, then I am troubled. Muriel, take them to the prisons. We must learn what we can from them.”

  Muriel motioned to the troop to follow her, but Ariel didn’t budge. “And then what? Kill us?”

  Gabriel stepped toward her. “We are not murderers, dear. I’d like to think we’re more civil than the Karellan, and we aim to prove that. But no man, no matter how great or terrible, has ever unified the entire world, and you must understand that we will not allow you to frighten us into submission.” He turned and strode quickly towards his throne. “Take them away.”

  Chapter Fifteen: Crisis

  Except for the buildings springing up from the plate, the upper city was completely flat.

  When Jae-Hoon joined the Unified Theocratic Church, they moved him from his small village to the Seoul plate. But he had never gotten used to it. For the young Korean boy who had grown up in a world of mountains, a flat city seemed unnatural.

  When the war ended, he was reduced to a second-class citizen. Despite the terrible living conditions, living on the ground felt more comfortable, and hunting draugr brought him back to the mountains from his youth. He didn’t like the plate. But he only had to be here for one day.

  Dumah had granted him a one-day permit to visit upper Nifelheim as a guest. The upper city was where the Armageddonist cardinals lived, and they were the ones he needed to see. One of them, at least. It didn’t matter who.

  The cathedral was near. Jae-Hoon scanned the tops of the buildings looking for it. Down the street, he saw it. The Armageddonists’ holy symbol.

  A black circle.

  In the days of the Unified Theocracy, the symbol of the Church had been the Flower of Life. It had been chosen as the most unified design. The circle represented perfection in Western religions, and in Eastern philosophy it had been used to demonstrate the balancing forces of the universe, the Yin and Yang.

  The Flower of Life design was a set of intersecting circles within a larger circle. It was a generic geometric pattern, so many symbols could be made using it. A series of seven circles taken out of the flower could be used to create the Star of David. Likewise, a series of thirteen circles was once used by Christians to represent the Fruit of Life, which was said to be blueprints of the universe and a representation of Jesus and his twelve apostles.

  The Tree of Life, a symbol from mythologies and religions all over the world, was also derived from the Flower. In Chinese mythology, the Tree of Life has been depicted with a phoenix and a dragon, one a symbol of death and rebirth, the other a symbol of the gods. The Norse believed the Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, would play a crucial part in the destruction and rebirth of the world. Odin hung from this tree for nine days and nights to gain wisdom and power. Likewise, the Juddeo-Christian Tree of Life was said to grant men the knowledge of good and evil and make them immortal.

  It was an image used throughout the world for as long as people can remember. It was the Theocracy’s method of unifying religions and making their belief one of their own.

  The Armageddonists put an end to that when their Church was founded. They remembered the crimes of the Theocracy. They witnessed the state of the world. No longer concerned with symbols of life, they filled in the circle until it was solid black.

  The new symbol of the Armageddon. The perfection of a circle filled with the darkness of the void. The word for that is apocatastasis. The return of the universe to the state it once was.

  Nothingness.

  It had taken many years for Jae-Hoon to assimilate into this new Church. It wasn’t easy to accept a new philosophy. But he had done so. It was his only path to God. His salvation would be through his faith in Armageddonism.

  And now he was meeting with a cardinal to discuss a crisis of that faith.

  He patted his robes, checking for a small object. A damaged data display, given to him by Dumah for his mission. He had checked it five times already, obsessing that he knew where it was. That he hadn’t left it behind. It was critical.

  Feeling the machine in his pocket, he was satisfied. He approached the cardinal’s chambers beside the church and knocked on the door. An old man with a modest white beard answered. “You must be the Slayer from the lower city.”

  “Yes, Father,” Jae-Hoon answered respectfully.

  Be careful, Dumah had advised earlier that day. The cardinals know you were in the Karellan’s laboratory. They will stop at nothing
to find out what you know.

  Jae-Hoon was nervous, knowing that this man served the Karellan, not the Church. That was the reason the Church existed. He must always be on his guard.

  “My name is Father Largo,” said the cardinal. “Please come in.”

  The room was lavish. Silk curtains, ornate wooden furniture, symbols of the religion cast in gold. It was everything one would expect from the living quarters of a high-ranking holy man. But in the corner, he spied the cardinal’s true power.

  The secure terminal. Just like the one in the Karellan’s lab.

  “Please, sit down and tell me about yourself.” Largo sat and kindly motioned for Jae-Hoon to do the same. “I have pulled your file, but I find it’s more personal to hear your story from you.”

  “Well . . .” He stopped for a moment and thought, distracted slightly by the fact that the cardinal had been studying his profile. “Where should I start?”

  The man was very friendly. Outwardly, at least. “You’re having a crisis of faith after a long life in the Church. Why don’t you start at the beginning? How and why did you join?”

  “I was very young. My family was poor. During the Theocracy, my brothers joined the resistance, trying to send home enough money for me and my father. It didn’t work.” His voice trailed off at the thought.

  “I understand,” Largo said. “Plenty of people died needlessly in the war. Just because they were resistance, doesn’t make it any less tragic.”

  Jae-Hoon wasn’t sure whether he should feel consoled or insulted, but he ignored the comment and continued. “My father, before he died, asked that I stay close with God. I joined the Church to make him happy, but now I . . .”

  “Stop,” said Father Largo, raising his hand. “You’re skipping part of the story. Why did you join the Church? In detail, please.”

  He took a breath. “I joined because I didn’t know how else to find God.”

  “That’s a very sound choice. I see no reason for doubt there,” said the cardinal.

  The priest protested. “But that’s the point. I don’t know if that’s the only way anymore. I don’t even know if I can find God through the Church.”

  “Explain,” Father Largo requested.

  “There just seems to be so much hypocrisy in organized religion. When I was studying in the Theocratic seminary, I was required to visit a Buddhist monastery for several months. I thought it would be a great chance to learn their philosophy. Meditating on the expulsion of negative feelings, reducing material desire . . . but when I arrived in the monastery, it was nothing like I expected. The monks lived with all the materialistic comforts of the wealthy.”

  “So you’re troubled by the Buddhists?” Largo tilted his head, looking concerned. A wonderful performance.

  “It’s not just them. I’ve seen that behavior in every Church. Even the Armageddonists. It just seems that there are more people breaking the rules than living by them. It seems like a religion that says it helps people and ends up hurting them instead would grow away from God instead of closer to him.”

  A worried look flashed across Father Largo’s face. He paused for a minute, but must have decided that the statement was harmless. “You were Catholic under the Theocracy, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  The Cardinal walked over to a book shelf and searched through it. “I rather appreciate Juddeo-Christian religions. Consolidated reading material. Just need a few books for the whole lot. Not that I get a lot of use for them anymore. Here we go.”

  He pulled a thick book off the shelf and brought it to Jae-Hoon. Sitting next to him, he opened it. “Deuteronomy, Chapter 29,” he read. “If anyone should think to himself, ‘I will do well enough if I follow the dictates of my heart,’ Yahweh will not pardon him. His wrath shall burn against him.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It means that you need the Church. You may feel as though you can find God on your own, but no one has their own moral compass. You are very strong, my son, but those monks were weak. Hypocrisy is for those who struggle with their faith. We live in a society of laws . . .”

  “But I don’t think we do!” Jae-Hoon interjected, more vehemently than he intended.

  “Explain.” Largo sounded more demanding this time. More upset.

  The priest hesitated, collecting his thoughts. “We give more rules to children than we do to adults, right?”

  “Of course. They need more guidance than adults,” Largo agreed.

  “Exactly! When we’re young, we don’t necessarily know what’s right and wrong. It’s not possible to make all our decisions on our own. So we have laws and rules to think for us. But when we age, when we grow wiser, we become more independent of those rules.”

  Largo let out a condescending laugh. “Our personal development is hardly comparable with divine will, my son.”

  “No, no it’s not. But . . . consider this.” He took the bible from the cardinal’s hands and opened it to the Old Testament. “Here is where religion was very young. Mankind was still recovering from its birth. Our people were not yet wise. And what happens? The Bible says that Moses came and gave laws to the people. But here . . .” He flipped to the New Testament. “Here we’re older, and we encounter Jesus of Nazareth, who is not a law-giver. Instead, he teaches us kindness, forgiveness, and wisdom. While Moses’ laws tell us what decisions we must make, Jesus encourages us to make our own. Our growth as people is very similar to our growth as people under God. I think that hiding behind our laws, we’re denying ourselves. We’re telling ourselves we’re not capable of free thought, of proper moralizing, when we really are.”

  “And what about those who never gain that wisdom? My son, law and guidance from our leaders . . . these are not bad things. They are not hurting people.”

  Jae-Hoon’s face became grim. “But I have proof that they are. People are getting hurt, and it’s because of the law and the Church.”

  The old cardinal became very attentive. “What is this proof?”

  The Slayer quietly took out the data display from his robes. “This will change your life,” he lied. He didn’t expect the cardinal’s opinion to be swayed in the least. But that wasn’t important. “The disc in this display has proof that the Hierophant is involved in something sinister.”

  Largo leaned closer. “Please, go ahead.”

  Jae-Hoon fumbled with the display, putting up a good show. “It’s not working, hang on.” He fiddled with buttons, flipped switches, turned the machine off and on, running the whole gamut of tests that he knew would fail. The display was broken. Dumah had seen to that personally. It was part of the plan.

  “What’s wrong with it?” asked Largo, in suspense.

  “It’s nothing . . . I had a rough fall on my way here. It must have damaged the display unit.”

  “Can you pull the data disc out? You could use my terminal as a display.”

  Jae-Hoon tugged at the disc release, which he knew wouldn’t give either. “I guess not, but I should be able to link my unit to another terminal.”

  “Be my guest,” said the cardinal. He motioned to the secure terminal, believing himself to be mere moments away from learning everything he needed.

  Everything necessary to condemn the errant priest.

  Jae-Hoon sat in front of the terminal. “Thank you. This may take a few minutes to transfer.” He pulled the link cable from his robes and plugged it into the computer.

  “Very well. Would you care for something? Tea or coffee?”

  “Yes. Tea, thank you.”

  Largo left the room, leaving him alone at the computer. The cardinal must feel safe. All the important files on the computer must be password restricted.

  Fortunately for Jae-Hoon, he wasn’t trying to access anything.

  He only had a few moments to find the public directory. The heads of the Church made announcements via their secure terminals. Information placed in these directories would be sent to library terminals throughout the upper city, and mo
re importantly, to all the broadcasting stations throughout the planet.

  The second-class citizens are all too ready to revolt, Dumah had explained when he rescued Jae-Hoon from jail. But the Karellan has many supporters among the first-class. They will need some . . . persuasion . . . before we can act.

  That had been Jae-Hoon’s mission this day. Persuasion. He only needed . . .

  The directory was right in front of him, as if set up on the computer, hungry for announcements.

  The Slayer quietly praised his luck, then checked the link with his data disc. The Supervisor had provided him with a small program to bypass any password protection on the cardinal’s terminal. Jae-Hoon ran the program on the directory, praying it would work quickly.

  Immediately he received the message, “Password Protection Not Enabled.”

  He was grateful. Suspicious, but grateful. Everything was working out better than he had hoped. He initiated the download.

  “Everything working?” called Largo from the hallway.

  “Just fine.”

  “And the transfers were copied?” His voice was closer.

  “Just finishing up now.”

  “Good.” Largo was in the room with him. Instead of tea cups, he held a gun. “Then give me the data disc. The police are on their way, and we can’t have that piece of evidence falling into their hands, now can we?”

  “Fine.” He tossed the broken display unit to the cardinal. “I don’t need it anymore. In a few minutes, news stations all over the planet will have their own copies.”

  Confusion flashed on Largo’s face. “Impossible. I set my public directory under triple-password protected.”

  “You must have made a mistake,” said Jae-Hoon calmly. Unafraid of the cardinal, he walked to the door.

  “You won’t get anywhere. The police are bound to be here by now.”