Until death?

by Andur

  Having lost their leaders, we got a unique chance to break their forces. If we show our presence to our people and the enemy, the psychological effect should be on our side.

  67 - Waking up to reality?

  “Daddy! Wake up!”

  …...mhmhhh just five minutes longer. Let me have my peace just five minutes longer.

  “Wake up!”

  Someone pinches my cheek and I open my eyes. Two faces look at me from above. “Oh. Aengus, Seria. What are you two doing here?”

  Looking around, I see a small room in white. I am lying on the single bed inside the room. This has to be the sick bay.

  “We were worried when we heard that you got wounded!” -Seria

  “Yes, They said you even lost an arm!” -Aengus

  “That couldn't be avoided. The spell I used, wasn't intended to be used from a distance.” I smile at them.

  “That's a pretty inconvenient spell, if it blows your own hand off!” -Aengus

  “Yes! The healers couldn't even regrow your arm! They had to take one of El Shaddai's and attach it to you!” -Seria

  “WHAT!”

  I jump out of the bed and take a look at my arms and my body. But it's all normal. No golden arm! I turn around to take a look at my children.

  “That was effective, sister!” Aengus scratches his cheek.

  “Like I said. I can get him out of the bed with one sentence.” Seria nods her head with a proud voice.

  Urgh! She had me! “Why are you two even bothering your injured father!?”

  “The healers said you are fine and mom wanted you to come to the command centre!” -Aengus explains happily.

  “Here daddy! Kings shouldn't run around naked.” Seria offers me a set of clothes.

  I snatch them out of her hands. “We will talk about this joke later!” I sent them a menacing glance. With a few fluent motions I dress myself and rush out of the room.

  I walk into the direction of the command centre. Aengus and Seria follow me in silence. “How long have I been out?”

  “About two days. The healers said the arm would regrow faster if you kept sleeping!” -Seria

  “That long!?” Oh my god! Did we win? Did we loose?

  After another corner, I arrive at the command centre. Celes and Nicosar are there, they are looking at a strategic map.

  At my arrival, they turn around and greet me. “Look! The great king, who defeated the ruler of the multiverse!” Nicosar jokes at me.

  “Had a nice sleep darling?” Celes smiles.

  “I am sure you had a better time than me. So can you inform me on what I missed?” I want to know what's going on!

  “After you blew El Shaddai up, I defeated Enyo and proceeded to lead our forces. We repelled the Council's army after the Nomad sent us aide via the fortress-teleportation. It seems like the Council enlisted warriors from the younger gods. When they saw El Shaddai and Enyo defeated, they turned around and ran.” Celes takes a break and Nicosar continues.

  “Without the younger gods, the Council's troops were at a big disadvantage. Both in numbers and position. They fought almost until the bitter end. But at a signal, they suddenly retreated and used the pathways as soon as they were out of range. They fled in all directions, so we couldn't follow them.”

  “They fled?” I ask baffled. “Why didn't they retreat to their city?”

  Celes shrugs her shoulders. “Who knows. In any case, we did some analysis on El Shaddai's remains and the smart heads told us that he wasn't a living being before he became a god. Enyo is sitting in our brig and the healers tell us that she has some serious mental issues.”

  “Now I understand nothing.” I sit down in a chair before the tactical display.

  A technician takes up the explanation. “We analysed the pieces of El Shaddai and found no traces of organic matter. He consisted of something like animated metal. From all what we know: A god is born when a mortal's soul ascends. But a soul can't exist inside something that doesn't live! On the other hand: We all saw El Shaddai's power. That was the power of a god.”

  “So you want to tell me that somebody created a golem, stuffed the soul of a god inside it and used him as a proxy!?”

  The technician nods.

  Someone else steps forward and starts his explanation. “We also took a close look at Enyo. From all we can tell, she isn't herself. And if I say that she isn't herself, I mean it. Someone or something messed with her mind. I doubt that she can make her own decisions. From what I can see, it's more like a setup of if-then orders. She just follows a pre-set set of orders and can't deviate from it.” The healer ends his explanation.

  “Lada?” That's the first thing coming to my mind.

  “We immediately checked her when we became aware of Enyo's situation. Lada seems to be as sane as someone with her age can be. She has a serious mental issue with love and happiness, so she couldn't hurt a fly. I found it really fascinating! Besides our little princess, Lada is one of the oldest beings in the multiverse. It's fascinating that you can stay sane over such a long time. But otherwise she is fine. We are keeping her in the medical bay and are having an eye on her. Just in case.” -Healer

  I rub my temples while I think about the situation. “So Lada is fine? But El Shaddai and Enyo were some kind of brainwashed proxies?”

  “That's what we wanted to ask. We tried to find El Shaddai's soul, but we found just some bits and pieces. What the hell did you do with him!?” -Nicosar

  “In retrospect I think that I may have overreacted. I used a spell on him which attacked the soul.” I explain.

  “From what I have heard, it attacked a little more than his soul. The guys who were close to the event talked about a portal to hell itself opening and taking El Shaddai.” -Nicosar

  “Pah! Don't spread weird rumours!” I don't like this! Rumours are bad.

  “So anything else?” -Me

  “While we were repairing our damage the Nomad found the energy junction, Lada had told us about. We used a pathway to teleport a bomb directly into the energy junction and the city's shield dropped. We gave them a few warning shots and they surrendered. It was rather boring. Afterwards we dropped off troops and the Nomad made a few trips to the homeworld and shipped another twenty thousand warriors here.” Celes waves her hand to indicate that she doesn't trust the situation either.

  “We had to replace our losses. From the fifty thousand people who joined us on this campaign, we lost about ten thousand. We are currently catching their souls in order to set them free at home again.” -Nicosar

  “And the other Council members?” I can't believe this. We may have paid a high price, but it still feels too cheap.

  “Gone. They packed their things and ran. There is no trace of their troops either. The guys who fled just vanished.” -Celes

  “So what about this Sphere of Sight? Couldn't we use it to investigate them?” No. That's a stupid idea. They wouldn't leave something valuable like that behind.

  “It's still there.” -Nicosar

  “Huh?” -Me

  “We asked Lada about it and she specified it's location. So we took a look and it was there. I sealed the room and every other important place inside the city. Then I gave orders for everyone to touch nothing that looks out of place and to report even the smallest irregularity. All people who come up from the city will have their minds checked.” -Nicosar

  “I guess it's reasonable, but aren't you overdoing it?” I need some time to cope with the situation.

  “No. Think about it. We have two Council members who seem to be someone else's puppets. Except for Lada, all the other Council members are missing. We have no idea who is behind all this, nor how he has done it.

  Someone ruled the universe with El Shaddai as a doll on strings for who knows how long. He managed to take over the ruling gods of the multiverse. I think we have reason to be paranoid about everything and everyone.

  Our only advantage is that this Mr. X couldn't get his hands on us until -now-.”
>
  “You seem to have thought about this already very long and hard.” -Me

  “It's obvious if you give it a little time. It wasn't within our enemy's consideration that we would take Enyo alive. With El Shaddai's remains alone we may have thought about someone using him from behind the scenes. But we wouldn't have thought that we could be a target too.

  Enyo was conditioned to fight until death. It was lucky that we took her alive. I and my staff think that this is a giant trap to lure us out of the void. X offered us the city without a big fight. He obviously intended to keep it intact, so he attacked us despite unfavourable odds.

  Then we take the city and become his next puppets. He already managed to mind-wipe the rulers of the multiverse once. Why not a second time?”

  Nicosar takes a deep breath after his long speech.

  “So we know now that we know nothing.” -Celes

  I knead my fists while I look down at the floor. Then I explode! “AARGH! Why does everything always just become more complicated!

  68 - If there is light?

  I am wandering through the Council's city. It's a beautiful place, I have to admit it. But I am still tempted to nuke it to oblivion.

  Nicosar's fears are going through my mind. My grandfather has a point if he doesn't trust the peace. After an exhaustive talk with Lada, we know one thing for sure.

  Lada almost never touched any of the city's installations. First, she doesn't like technology and doesn't really understand it. Second, she never stayed inside the city for long.

  She has various places throughout the multiverse, where she spends most of her time with mortal people. The healers think that's the reason for her sanity despite her age. So she never felt the urge to stay in the Council's city, where just gods who were removed from the real world resided.

  After the fight, various gods from throughout the multiverse turned up and we are still trying to sort out the mess.

  At the moment we take the position that everyone should continue to have an eye on their own world. We took the previous government completely out of service and threw them inside a void zone. It's the perfect prison for the moment. Some people from home will take care of them one by one.

  After I investigated the Council's sealing method within the black hole, I completely dismissed it. The device which was used for it, is a baleful looking room, belonging to the city.

  You have to stand on top of a platform, while numerous crystals face their tips towards you. By channelling the planets mana-flow itself through your soul, you are sent directly into the black hole with unbelievable force.

  It's just a description from the city's occupants. I dismissed the idea because there wasn't a possibility to get someone out again. Who knows what happens to a soul inside a black hole?

  The whole machine didn't look very nice to me either. I can't explain it, but I had a bad feeling while I was looking at it.

  Of course Arthur and everyone else wanted to come down to the city too and take a look at it, but I forbade it.

  Only experienced soul mages and the absolutely needed guards are allowed down here. If Nicosar's suspicions are true, nobody without knowledge about mind-magic should be in this city.

  I also inspected various other installations and weapon storages within this city. The light-weapons are one of them. There is a whole complex of facilities, which are producing them non-stop around the hour and storing them in underground storages. Those seem to be endless by now, although the process of creating a light-weapon takes an enormous amount of time and mana.

  The light-weapons seem to be a very advanced part of the crystal-tec. They are concentrated mana too, but they have no seed.

  Of course I took a look at the Sphere of Sight too. But when I took a step into the room with it inside, I made a step backwards and closed the door again. Nicosar's warnings don't leave my head.

  Wouldn't the Sphere be the perfect place to set up a mind-wiping trap? Wouldn't it be logical for us to use it to search for the missing Council members?

  Am I too careful? Lada wasn't influenced and she visited this city regularly. So you are safe if you just look and don't touch?

  Hah! Could this bad feeling of mine be fear? I didn't feel fear for an eternity, I don't remember how it feels to fear something. I guess it's normal to loose this emotion if you already know that you will just reincarnate again.

  But this situation isn't like that. Having your mind mashed up like Enyo's is equivalent to dying. No fun! No fun at all!

  But why am I feeling fear? Is there something to fear? I had a fulfilled life. I did everything I ever wanted to do and I lived longer than any mortal could ever dream of.

  Why do I fear death? I there any logic behind that? Hmmmm.

  I turn in a circle and look around. This is a big plaza. There are no people around. All this sucks big time. Not even the inhabitants of this city were of any use in uncovering its secrets.

  First of all, I want to know where the seed is! The seed is the core of every crystal technology. Like with my palace and my fortresses, the seed is something like the central computer core. It focuses the mana and enables the mana-crystal to grow and develop.

  But there is no seed in this city. That's impossible. It should be a big pulsing crystal with enormous energy. How can someone live for millennia inside this city and not know of something remarkable like that.

  This whole thing makes no sense!

  So I will have to try it? Take a look at the Sphere? I guess there is no choice. I look up at the fortresses above the city and concentrate.

  -Arthur, can you hear me?-

  -Yes?-

  -Send ten of our best mind-mages to the room with the Sphere of Sight. I want to take a look at it and they have to check me as soon as I come out of the room.-

  -.... understood.-

  I cancel the connection and step on a pathway which leads me directly in front of the room with the Sphere of Sight.

  It doesn't take much time and ten people arrive one by one at the meeting place. They are all people I saw on an earlier meeting. Back then we set the rules for investigating the city.

  “I want to take a look at the Sphere and you guys have to check on me afterwards to find out if something went wrong.” I give them the short version.

  “And what if something is wrong?” A young woman in blue robes asks me.

  “Then you hold me down and call for help.” I wince at the thought.

  “But what if we don't manage it?” Someone else asks.

  I sneer at them. “You are ten people and I will be alone. You still want to tell me that you wouldn't be able to restrain me?”

  All of them look at me with doubtful expressions.

  “Whatever! Get Celes and Nicosar down here if you have so little trust in your own abilities.” I turn around and enter the room.

  Inside, I slam the door shut and turn towards the Sphere of Sight. It still gives off an ominous feeling.

  Slowly I circle around the thing without coming too close. It's a solid sphere made out of mana-crystal. It's constantly spinning while it stays perfectly centred inside the room.

  Are you supposed to touch it and see something on its surface? Or do you have to connect with your mind to it? According to Lada the Sphere was a mystery to her. She just saw Amaru standing before it for hours and days.

  When he suddenly moved again, he would have the information he was looking for. So it's a mental connection?