by Andur
“..........They are eunuchs.”
“...”
A higher realm. Some time later
Multiple gods are assembled for a crisis-conference.
“So did you go and save her?” -Nuin, High god of the sun
“Yeah...” -Nazareth, god of mountains and travellers
“....Good. It would be bad if we violated our duty of supervision. I don't want to imagine what Angrod will do to us if she dies before her time!” Zenial, High goddess of the moon
“We have to keep an eye on her around the clock! Nothing is allowed to kill her. The easy way out of her fate isn't allowed.” -random god
“He threatened us with THIS and THAT! Be sure to keep her alive! If I just think about those costumes!” -random goddess
Multiple gods look to the ground with depressed faces and an aura of looming doom over them.
“*Sigh*. So who has to watch her for the next shift?” -Nuin, High god of the sun
“Ah! That's me. I am on my way.” -Some minor god
Everyone waves goodbye to the minor god and then the group continues to mourn their fate.
89 - Support group and aftermath?
Seria's and Aengus's first day at school
“She really did it! I can't believe it! She sent us to school! A school! For us!” Aengus continues to rage about our newest.... situation.
I pat on Aengus's back while I try to comfort him.
“And to think that she would even go as far as sending us to a boarding school!!” Aengus drops his head onto the desk.
“It will be okay big bro! We will endure and pull through! And when we are back at home, she will have forgotten her anger and take us back.” I smile at him.
“Urgh! She will never forgive you that stunt you pulled on her! I would like to know why I have to suffer too! I did nothing wrong!” Aengus glares at me.
“I am sorry big bro! If there is anything I can do to make up for it, just tell me.” -Me
Aengus just sighs and looks to the front of the classroom. It's our first class and there are about thirty students.
“I heard that the Andros quintuplets are going to this school too! Maybe we can meet them?” I am trying to cheer Aengus up. He has a crush on one of the Andros girls. But I fear that he has no hope of winning her over because she doesn't even consider him.
On top they know our parents from our stories. If Aengus wants a girlfriend..... he would have to finalize it before she meets mom and dad.
There are children of various ages inside the classroom. It's a little strange. Shouldn't we be separated by age?
That's the moment when a teacher enters the classroom and everything goes silent. It's a completely strange reaction for children of our age if you think about it.
But the teacher doesn't seem to be disturbed and simply starts his introductions.
“Hrm. Hello, all! I am Samarin. I will be in charge of this class. Curse your fate!” He takes a meaningful look at us, but nobody raises his voice.
“Well. I don't like too long introductions. So we will directly start with the work. First get the tables to the side and form a circle with your chairs.”
The teacher's instructions are followed without big problems and less than five minutes later the whole class is assembled in a circle. Everyone looks with expectant eyes to the teacher.
“Well, first let me tell you that this is no normal school. Your teachers here are aware that you all are more than what you look. We know that it's hard to be treated like a child despite having all that common knowledge of your former lifes. Even if you don't remember everything of it.” Samarin takes a look around the circle.
“I would be happy if you don't think about this as a class. Think about it more like a support group! We will talk about our issues and everyone will listen. Then we will try to find a solution together. This is the primary purpose of this school, despite of what your parents think. Of course you guys can still work on your abilities too and every teacher at this institute will help you.” -Samarin
Samarin takes out a little notebook and a pen in order to take some notes about us. “So let's start with you little miss. Please tell everyone who you are and why you are here.” Samarin points to a little girl right beside him. She can't be older than five and has troubles not to fall from her chair.
“Uuuhm..... I am Maria. My hobbies are painting and reading books! I got into trouble with my parents because they always treated me like a child! After a while I got so fed up with it that I started to behave like a real five year old. I showed them what it meant to leave dangerous equipment lying around and set the house aflame. They were unable to cope with it and so I landed here. Please take care of me.” The little girl waves at the class.
The introductions continue until it's my and Aengus's turn.
“Hi, I am Seria and....” But I get interrupted by silent whispers around the classroom.
“So they belong to that family?” “They have that monster as a father?”
“Dad isn't like that! He just hit me once and I deserved it!” -Aengus
“I pity them...” “So the monster is hitting them!” “Better to not get too close to them.” “Poor guys!”
“At least they have a nice mom!” “Yeah, the best and nicest mother....” “.....and beautiful!”
“..... mom isn't like that! She is actually torturing us!” -Me
“Yes! She is a demon! Don't fall for those rumours!” -Aengus
“Poor kids.” “He already beat them so much ….” “.... they started to believe it themselves.”
“NOOO! Hear me out! I will tell you guys the whole story!” And so we start to tell them the story of our lifes so far. I tell them about Celes's whipping sessions. And Ireth's educational measures.
Aengus takes over from time to time to tell how Dad actually saved us from mom once. And various other stories of him being nice. Regularly teaching us magic and science. And various other useful skills like handling torture instruments and breaking peoples minds.
Five hours later we are done and everyone looks at us with pale faces and frightened expressions.
“Puh.... It was good to get that off of our minds and talk to someone about it. Right bro?” I look at Aengus with a relieved expression.
“Right, sis! I feel much better now. Especially to correct those rumours.” Aengus nods to me.
“It's worse than i thought.” “They are in hell.” “Why are they still alive?” “They are monsters too?” “Better don't get too close to them!” “But we have to help them somehow.”
Samarin looks up from his notebook, which was actually filled to the last page during our story. “You two... It seems like there is a lot of work before us....... your mother already informed us of you two to be notorious liars. But i never imagined that it would be that much work to help you.”
"I want to go home!"
Former factory planet of the Council
I kick a crystal shard on the ground. “This is frustrating! A whole fucking planet of evidences and we can't find out where they took the Spheres!”
“We are as smart as before. But we got a few valuable informations about the production process of a Sphere.” Chiffre looks up into the sky with a pained expression.
The Arcane Community's moon is clearly visible. It's surrounded by debris, creating an interesting view. It could take a few years until some of the parts will drift out of sight or fall down onto the planet.
After the battle and securing Elohim's body/remains, we decided to hold an emergency meeting.
“I hope you don't plan to play around with a Sphere!” I hate to play the motherly character, but those things are just flat out creepy.
“Of course not! But just looking at the factories gives us all the information that's needed. Like building processes and blueprints. We don't have to risk our souls by playing around with the real thing!” Chiffre answers with a flat voice.
“And by analysing the data we already
found out that the Spheres are all linked together and controlled by a hierarchical command structure. There is a central controlling device somewhere. Our people are currently working on a method to tab into this network to find the enemies command centre.” -Chiffre
"Wouldn't it be much easier to interrogate Elohim." Carne asks an obvious question.
“He isn't in a good condition at the moment. And I doubt that we would get any useful information out of him. He is most likely mind wiped like the others.” Chiffre makes a dismissive gesture. It was the Arcane Community which captured Elohim after the fight. He was drifting in an orbit around their moon after the headbutt.
“That doesn't mean that he will get away lightly. To destroy my moon with a headbutt! Kukuku! I will take my time to dismantle him piece by piece. And after I am done with his body, I will work on his soul. There are quite a few experiments to be done. I always wanted to try to disassemble a soul. Kukuku. Looks like he ate the souls of a few of his followers to fuse with them. I will take my time to restore the natural order........ and maybe go a little further. Kkukukuku....” -Chiffre
“Ehm... Yeah, right. Do your thing.” Carne looks a little pale.
“So we will ready the fleet and wait for your guys to finish the device Chiffre.” I smile at the mad member of the Arcane Community. Hopefully for Carne the truth will never come out......
90 - War and leaving the mountain?
I look at the screen and try to think of a solution. But I can't think of anything.
“That's a formidable defence they got there.” Chiffre looks at the screen with an annoyed expression.
You could call this an emergency meeting. I have the ambassadors here. Nicosar and Arthur. Celes, Tanja and Sandra. Fuck, I simply called everyone with the slightest bit of battle power from Chimera.
The tracking device of the Arcane Community worked perfectly and led us towards the enemy base. I call it base but it's more like a gigantic fortress composed of multiple planets.
There is a huge planet in the centre of the configuration. This planet is surrounded by dozens of smaller planets in a very tight and complex gravitational dance.
It's something completely unnatural and so we can already guess that this construct was most likely made by Amaru.
There is just one problem. The planets are infested with countless demons. And some of them seem to have the ability to use pathways!
We already lost a scout ship to those things. They kept appearing around it until the crew had to abandon the ship.
“I say we go in there with all hands and crush everything! No need to hold back!” Celes waves her fist at the screen.
“Hold it! What if we somehow set off the Spheres by doing that!” Miruliru doesn't seem to like the idea.
“They will be set off either way. Our enemies aren't using the Spheres as a threat. It's rather a question of why they didn't activate them. The only reason could be that they aren't ready yet. So by going in earlier, we may stop them from using them on a large scale.” Chiffre explains his thoughts to us.
I close my eyes to relax. Millions of worlds gone, just because some type of epic fools had to play with fusing souls. Every idiot should be able to tell that something with multiple personalities is bound to go mad with time.
“So the only question is how to utilize our forces and abilities!” Nicosar puts up a stance while looking at the screen.
“We should go in with all our forces together. Those demons could overwhelm smaller groups very easily by using pathways.” Zanders shakes his head.
~May I make a suggestion?~
“Oh? Warden. It's unusual for you to talk on your own.” I answer Warden's voice which interrupted our conversation.
~I am sorry for being rather simple minded in following my purpose. But the current situation is directly connected to my orders. So to get to my suggestion. I will take Asheim there and destroy those planets.~
“Could you repeat that?” -Miruliru
~I will take Asheim through a pathway like the Arcane Community did with their moon. Then I will utilize my weaponry to destroy those planets.~
“You can destroy planets? And you are talking about it like it's no big deal?” -Gwalonna
~I am the Warden. I am tasked to stop the great Calamity from ever emerging again. It would be pretty stupid if I didn't have the abilities to do so. I was created by the Bright One after all.~
“Oooh. If it's like that! Come here and smash that planetary fortress!” Carne waves at the screen with an expectant gesture.
~It isn't that easy. I need to get close enough to do it. Otherwise I can't guarantee the eradication of the demons.~
“How do you intend to get rid of the demons?” I ask Warden with a curious voice.
~By using the same magic which you used to stop the earlier incursions.~
“Warden! I thought we had an agreement in terms of spying through my ships!” I shout with an angry voice.
~I am sorry. Your anger isn't justified. I didn't break our agreement. The magic you are using was known to me for a long time. It was developed by the Bright One to stop the Calamity and return the eaten souls to the great cycle.~
I squint my eyes. “That's hard to believe. I developed that magic by researching the affinities of my own soul. The bright one must have had a soul very similar to mine in order to create that magic.”
~Then the answer is obvious.~
“Hah?!” I am at a dead end. But Warden doesn't seem to realize that further explanations are needed.
“Explain that in detail, Warden!” -Chiffre
~If the magic was developed twice by researching a specific souls affinities. Then the soul in question has to be the same one. Souls are like fingerprints. Some may be similar, but every one of them is unique.~
~So Angrod has to be the Bright One.~
I smack my head hard. This whole reincarnation shit is becoming too complicated.
“But Angrod is Angrod! He doesn't remember anything of being an Ascended?” -Celes
~All remaining Ascended returned to the great cycle of life and death. Like I said. But I never said that they couldn't rise again. And that's what they believed would happen after enough time. Most likely many of you have the soul of an Ascended.~
~It's actually funny to see that you gods seem to be caught in an endless wheel. Even if you think that you managed to escape your fate...... you end up in your old positions again.~
“That's not funny Warden! Fuck you! I would disassemble you if we wouldn't need you.” I scream out towards the ceiling. This is frustrating!
“That's not funny Warden! Fuck you! I would disassemble you if we wouldn't need you.”
~Funny. That's a translated recording of the Bright One. He said the exact same words once, if you overlook the grammatical language differences.~
“Argh!”
I start to type at my console but moments before I can press the -delete- button, multiple ambassadors, family members and friends jump on me like I would carry a football and just entered the death zone.
At another world in another time.
“So you will now walk into this city and concentrate on the things I taught you Sharid.” Nazareth is standing beside me at knee height with crossed arms.
“Yes, ~Master!~” I am so excited! After a year of training under him and secluding myself on that mountain, I am finally able to come back to civilisation!