This made Ev a little happier but the pain of Maya’s betrayal still haunted him. Why had she done it? Did she really care for Belial that much? Was there anything Ev could have done to stop her from going back to him? Logically, he knew it would do no good to dwell on these things, but the mind was seldom logical. He felt the burning desire to analyze each and every detail until the endeavor threatened to devour him whole. Worse, he was certain he would never be emotionally well again unless he got his answers. Answers no one at present could give him.
He was about to return to return to his room when another familiar presence made itself known to him. It was the crying person. Only this time, the crying was far more intense. Whoever it was had been suffering a lot since Ev’s last visit here.
Ev called out, Who are you?
He hadn’t received an answer before, and he wasn’t expecting one now. Nevertheless, he got one. Help me. I don’t know what to do. He recognized the voice, and now he knew who it was.
Where are you? No answer. Hello? Nothing. Perhaps they had been interrupted, or perhaps they had had second thoughts about asking him for help.
Ev rose to his feet in determination. He had been asked for help, and he was going to give it.
* * *
Ev knocked on the door of Brandon’s office. The professor answered. “Sorry, Ev; I don’t have a lot of time.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
He hesitated for a moment. “I’m not sure I should tell you.”
“Tell me what? Come on, what’s going on?”
“No, forget it. I can’t tell you.”
Brandon tried to leave his office, but Ev blocked the door. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on. Does this have something to with Maya?”
Brandon sighed. His choices were pretty limited. Either he could physically remove Ev and risk getting in trouble, or he could tell him what he wanted to know. “All right. But you can’t tell anyone else. We’re taking a group over to Stiftung to fight the Nephilim.”
That was exciting news, indeed, and just the opportunity Ev was looking for. “I’m in.”
As if it would be that easy. “No, you’re not. This isn’t a game. Lives are at stake here, and even we gods can die. You kids are going to stay right here in the safety of the Academy.”
“Please listen to me,” Ev pleaded.
Brandon checked his watch. “All right; you’ve got thirty seconds.”
“We have to save Maya.”
“Look, I know you think she was your friend—”
“She is my friend. She wants to be saved.”
Brandon’s expression showed he wasn’t buying it. “What makes you think that?”
Ev told him about the Prayer Chamber.
“You’re still too inexperienced to use that room by yourself. You shouldn’t have even been in there. That could have been anyone.”
“I know it was—”
“Time’s up, Ev. I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.” Of course, he had implied there might not be a later.
* * *
Ev walked down the hallway back to his dorm room, dejected. He wanted more than anything to go save Maya, but without an experienced god to take him to Stiftung, he was out of luck. No, scratch that; Maya was out of luck. If only there was some way he could make his teachers listen to him. Unfortunately, what Brandon said had sounded too reasonable to refute, and Ev had used up what few arguments he had trying to change his mind.
Jaysin, CiCi and Daryn approached him in the corridor. “Hey, Ev,” Jaysin said. “What’s going on?”
Ev shrugged lethargically. “I was talking with Professor Strong. I wanted him to take me with him back to Stiftung.”
CiCi said, “What a coincidence. We were about to do the same thing.”
“Save your breath. They’re not going to take us,” Ev said.
“Told you,” Daryn said, his nervous tic acting up as usual.
“They want us to stay here where it’s safe.” Ev spat out that last word.
Jaysin grinned. “So of course we won’t.”
This was no time for jokes, Ev thought. “Didn’t you hear me? They won’t take us. End of story.”
“I can’t believe you, mate. You’re just going to sit back and do nothing? Don’t you want to save Maya?”
Ev was taken aback by that. “How did you know?”
“It’s written all over your face,” CiCi said.
There was no point in denying it, then. “I do want to save her. But how are we supposed to get to Stiftung if they won’t take us?”
“Maybe they won’t take us,” Jaysin said. “But haven’t you read the Academy charter? Article six, section nine clearly states, ‘No students shall be held against their will. All students are free to leave at any time’. They can’t stop us from leaving on our own.”
Ev still didn’t know where he was going with this. “But how are we supposed to leave if they won’t make an aircraft for us?”
“They only use airplanes and sleighs for transporting novice students. The rest of the time they just fly on their own,” Daryn said.
Ev thought back to when Freya and he astral-projected across the ocean. He supposed it was similar to that. Still… “I don’t know how to fly.”
“It’s only a level two skill,” CiCi pointed out.
Jaysin nodded. “We should be able to do it without much trouble. Normally they save it for the second year, but it’s in our textbook for students who decide to show initiative.”
Ev was intrigued…and scared. “All right. How do you do it?”
Daryn explained, “Supposedly you take the wind outside, wrap it around your body and move it wherever you want to go. As long as you keep your concentration, you should be able to go just about anywhere.”
Ev managed to wrap his head around the concept. It sounded simple enough to pull off. However… “That still leaves one problem. We’re indoors.”
Jaysin looked at him quizzically. “So?”
“So…there’s no wind indoors. The only way to practice it is to go outdoors.
“But the only way to go outdoors is out the hangar entrance,” CiCi said. Realization then dawned on her. “Ohhhhh.”
Ev nodded. “Exactly. It’s a hundred-foot drop onto jagged rocks. We’d only get one chance at it.”
They were silent for several long moments. Finally CiCi said, “Is there no other way?”
“Maybe we could steal a sleigh,” Ev suggested.
Jaysin shot down that idea. “Wouldn’t work. They can’t fly without Freya’s cats to pull them.”
So that was it, then. Ev balled his fists resolutely. “So be it. I’m going.”
“Whoah, whoah, whoah,” Daryn said. “Are you really going to risk it? And for what? Maya yurring Brünhart?”
“I am. Maya is waiting for someone to save her. And in case you’ve forgotten, we’d already decided to risk our lives by going to Stiftung. So it’s not like I’ll be risking anything more by jumping out of the hangar.”
“Good point,” Jaysin said.
CiCi said, “Maya’s my friend, too. I’m going to help save her from Belial.”
“And Ev’s my friend. I can’t let him risk his life alone,” Jaysin said.
Daryn looked at them like they were crazy. “Ah, what the hell. I’ll go, too. I don’t give a damn about Maya Brünhart, but if you guys died, I wouldn’t have any friends here.”
Ev felt added confidence from the addition of his friends to this venture, even if it meant they might all die. “So it’s decided, then. We’ll wait for Professor Strong and the others to leave, and then we’ll leave.”
They all put their hands together in a show of solidarity.
* * *
Once the hangar door opened, Brandon, Freya, Atlas and Aphrodite looked out onto the vast expanse of ocean before them. They were the last group; the other gods had already left.
“Once we get to Stiftung, don’t take any unnecessary ri
sks. We’ll coordinate our attacks against one Nephilim at a time. If they overwhelm us, we’ll fall back,” Brandon said.
The other three nodded. They understood their mission perfectly well.
The four of them jumped out into the sky with the grace that could only be achieved by experienced gods. With them, it was effortless. They didn’t even have to think about it. After all, they had mastered skills far more difficult than mere flying.
* * *
The four students, hidden behind large boxes, watched the faculty members leave. They then waited five minutes and proceeded to the end of the hangar where the main doors were still open.
The wind pelted Ev’s face as he looked below to the churning seas. Normally he would have said it was a long way down, but now that he knew he would actually have to jump, he might as well have been jumping out of a plane traveling through the stratosphere.
Jaysin summed up what they were all thinking. “Last chance to back out, mates.” Ev was certain they were all tempted.
Nevertheless, each one shook their head. They had committed themselves to saving Maya, with the exception of Daryn. He just wanted to pay back Belial for the humiliation they had endured at Victory Square. “So who’s going to be the first to jump?” he said.
They stood there for several moments, quaking in their boots. This wasn’t something they wanted to do. This was something that needed doing, but that didn’t mean a lack of trepidation. Just the opposite, in fact.
“Hey! What are you kids doing?”
A stern-faced man wearing overalls was heading towards them. By the looks of him, he was a grease monkey with authority.
They looked at one another, each hoping one of the others would come up with a decent excuse for their being here. No one did.
The man pointed a wrench at them. “This place is off-limits to students right now. Go back to your rooms, or wherever. I know classes are canceled right now, but you can’t stay here. It’s dangerous.”
Ev turned away from him and looked back down at the waves crashing against the rocks below. He summoned up every ounce of courage he had been building up for the past few minutes. “Ah, the hell with it.”
And with that, he jumped. He realized the potentially grave mistake he had just made as he plummeted to almost certain death below, his clothes and hair whipping about in frenzy. Worse, the knowledge of how to fly had left his brain due to the extreme anxiety he was now feeling.
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on! Remember! Despite the sheer insanity of the situation, he forced all non-productive thoughts from his mind and focused on what he had to do. Wrap the wind around you and move it.
He now had two trains of thought fighting for control of his brain. The first: Fly, dammit! The second: You will be crushed against the rocks in a matter of moments.
He screamed, and it looked like the second train of thought would win and he would die this day. Ev Bannen, survivor of an abusive father, a fallen god and demonic creatures, dead, his body washed away, never to be found again. He closed his eyes to await his fate.
But after several moments, nothing happened, and he realized he no longer felt the sensation of falling. He opened his eyes, and to his amazement he wasn’t falling anymore. Instead, he floated above the sea.
“Ev, ya did it!”
He looked up. Jaysin floated down beside him, followed by CiCi and Daryn. “Looks like it really works,” CiCi said joyfully.
They all hovered about for a moment. “All right, we’ve stopped,” Ev said. “But can we actually move forward?”
Jaysin said, “Should be simple enough. Just visualize the air currently flowing around your body, and then picture it moving forward.”
“Like a storm?” Ev asked.
“Or a breeze. Whichever works for you,” CiCi said.
They could hear the hangar people yelling frantically up above. “We’d better move quickly before someone comes down here to ‘rescue’ us,” Daryn said.
Ev closed his eyes and did as instructed. He saw the currents of air holding his body in place. He then imagined an oversized hand lightly pushing the air forward; he didn’t want to overdo it like when he began his speed training. He started moving away from the mountain, inch by inch, and then foot by foot. He gradually increased speed until he was moving at a good clip.
The other three were doing the same. It took a bit of coordination, but eventually they managed to get their speed in sync. After about fifteen minutes they were flying towards Stiftung at about the same speed as an airplane. Assuming none of them fell out of the sky, they would soon be back in that embattled city.
Then the real fight would begin.
Chapter XIV
Belial stood atop the TV-SDS building, the tallest structure in Stiftung. He had a wonderful view of the city and its citizens—his new worshippers.
Once he had delivered his message, he ordered the Nephilim to go into standby mode. They currently awaited further orders.
“Everything’s going according to plan,” he said. Maya, standing behind him, said nothing. “Something on your mind?”
“No. It’s just…” She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Out with it.”
She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she had to say. “Was it really a good idea to betray Zero Grade?”
“What kind of stupid question is that? And here I thought you actually had a thought-provoking message to give me. Of course it was a good idea. As a matter of fact, it was inevitable. Those jagoffs have always looked down on me ever since we split from the rest of the Lost Gods. Me and my brother used to raise hell together. We sent fear into the hearts of mortals and gods alike. But after he left, the other gods saw me as just another disgraced deity. I haven’t gotten any respect in countless millennia.”
“But you’ve now made an enemy of them.”
He turned on her. Anger burned in his eyes. “They want to share the glory, the praise, the worship. That would make us equals, and this god,” he pointed a thumb at himself, “has no equals.”
“No, of course not.”
He turned back around to admire the view again. “Seems you’re still not convinced turning against Zero Grade was the right move. Just wait; soon you will be.” She again said nothing.
Suddenly there was a stirring in the air. He could feel it in the very fiber of his being. “They’re here,” he said.
“The other gods?”
His smile must have been beautiful, he thought. “Yes. They’ve come to face the Nephilim, just as I planned.”
“But surely they’ll head straight here to destroy you…”
“Not so fast.” He held out his hand, and the Blood Key materialized in the air. He took hold of it. “To all Nephilim, I, your master, command you. Intercept all gods who enter the city and crush them!” A thought occurred to him. “No, not just gods. Anyone with god potential. I don’t want even the students to get through.” There was a silent assent. He didn’t so much hear it as feel it. The giants had heard him, and they obeyed.
Soon the next phase of his plan would commence.
* * *
Brandon’s group entered the city from the Härte River. The body of water flowed in from the Baducian Sea to the east. Stiftung, in fact, had been built along the river, and the autoschnelle traversed its parameter.
They landed in Zukunft Park, a large area with numerous trees, play sets for children and a walking trail for adults.
Brandon motioned for them to stop. “Scan the city for Belial.”
They concentrated for several moments, using their God-Sense to find the renegade. “I’ve got him,” Freya said. “He’s on top of the TV station.”
“So he’s still there,” Atlas said.
“Cocky bastard doesn’t have the good sense to leave,” Aphrodite declared.
Brandon replied, “Why would he? He has an army guarding him.”
“Not for long,” Atlas amended.
Freya’s eyes
suddenly opened in alarm. “We’ve got company. Three—no, four—Nephilim are headed this way.”
“Can we go around them?” Aphrodite asked.
Shaking her head, Freya said, “No. They clearly know where we are and they’re coming right for us.”
Brandon cracked his knuckles. “Well, then. Time to relieve some stress, eh?”
The Nephilim crashed through the trees. They ran roughshod over the play sets and sandbox, trashing everything in their path.
“There’s one for each of us,” Atlas said.
The gods split up and began battling their respective Nephilim. Though they were deities, the giants were divine in their own right, and the battle proved to be fierce. Brandon delivered a series of savage blows to his opponent, and his comrades fought equally well. Unfortunately for them, so did the Nephilim. One of them caught Atlas in a bear hug and threatened to squeeze the life out of him. Freya flew over and kicked the giant in the head, destroying its concentration and forcing it to free the muscular god.
Soon, however, the battle turned against the gods. Nephilim reinforcements showed up, and it looked like the teachers from Divine Protector Academy would be overwhelmed.
Nevertheless, the team received surprising help when a double-edged scythe cleaved one of the giants in half from behind. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Brandon said. He was battered and bruised.
Shinigami, Hera and Quandisa entered the battle and helped the other gods make short work of the Nephilim.
When it was over, Freya said to them, “What’s going on here?”
“Belial has turned his back on Zero Grade,” Shinigami explained.
“So we’re here to kill him,” Hera added.
“I knew it,” Brandon said. “I knew he wouldn’t share the spotlight with the rest of you.”
Quandisa threw up her hands. “So we made an error in judgment.” She said this as if it had been merely an innocent mistake instead of a full-blown catastrophe which now threatened the mortal world.
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