Portals of Infinity: Reprisal

by John Van Stry

  "So when are ye leaving?"

  "Soon," I said. "Very soon."

  Nineteen

  Wasteland - Stepheen's City

  I stepped out of the portal. It had taken quite a few weeks to get here, though most of that was spent on the first three spheres, where things were more primitive. Once I'd gotten to the more modern spheres, air travel had cut down on travel times significantly.

  I looked around, and then stopped and then looked around a second time.

  When I had been here last, it had been a deserted, debris strewn, ruins on the edge of a desert. I was still standing on the edge of a bunch of ruins that had once been a fairly large town, but the scattered debris was gone, things were obviously being cleaned up, and some of the buildings actually looked like people were starting to fix them.

  That brought me to the people.

  There were people here now, quite a few of them, possibly even a lot. I saw a dozen right off, including the six well-armed ones who were now looking at me from something that looked like a guard station. It was behind the portal, so it hadn't been obvious when I first stepped through. I also noticed that there was a small monument across from where the portal let out. At least I think it was a monument, it looked like something made from wood and carefully stacked stones and was occupying the spot where I think Cenewyg and I had fought it out the last time.

  "Who are you," one of the men asked me. He didn't point his rifle at me, it was pointed down at the ground, but he had his hands on it and probably could do that fairly quickly, if need be.

  "William, Cameron's father," I said looking around. "What's going on here?"

  Three of them swore, five of them made some sort of a sign with their hands, not quite a warding sign, but they all did it the same. Something religious perhaps?

  "We're building our settlement here; this is the place where Stepheen has decreed we are to settle, now that this land is ours."

  "Oh, okay." I said and nodded. "Any chance I could perhaps, speak to someone in charge? Maybe my son, if he's around?"

  I asked the last bit rather nervously. The last time I'd seen Cameron, he'd been sucking on his fingers and still wearing diapers. Well, that was the last time just before he became a demigod and I died. Now he was a full-grown adult with some very godlike powers.

  But he was also only about four years old.

  What do you say to your child that is now a demigod? I had no idea.

  "You don't look like the War Leader," The one talking to me said, "You just look like a normal man."

  I sighed and shifted into my champion form, and this time they all made that sign again, but at least they didn't swear.

  "I'm sorry, War Leader!" he said rather fervently, I had no idea!"

  I shifted back to my local form, "That's the idea," I replied. I figured I might as well go along with it, not like I'd probably have a choice.

  "And please, just call me Will, or William? Okay?"

  He nodded, "Yes, Sir! Please, come this way! I will take you to Oliff."

  "Oliff?" I asked curious.

  "He is our god Stepheen's high priest."

  "Oh," I said and nodded, I never had gotten his name when I was here last.

  I followed him through the town, and we ended up at a house that quite clearly resembled the house that I had met Stephanie in, in her realm, after I had been killed here. Oliff was waiting for us, but I wasn't surprised, no doubt Stephanie, or rather 'Stepheen,' the goddess, had told him.

  "Ah, William, it is good to see you again," he said and shook hands with me. He then turned to my escort, "We are expecting two more visitors, please escort them here after they arrive."

  "Yes, Sir!" he said and quickly left.

  "So, you run the place now?" I asked and looked around a bit more. They'd obviously taken the time to fix this house first, and while the outside seemed to jive with the one in Stephanie's new realm of godhood, that was where the similarities ended. Inside almost all of the walls had been taken down, and it had been converted into a church.

  "Nice place," I said looking around, "is Cameron around?"

  Oliff shook his head, "No, he is off thwarting our enemies and spreading mayhem in their ranks."

  "Isn't that a bit much for the kid?" I asked.

  "Cameron is a demigod!" Oliff said and looked at me rather scandalously.

  I sighed and rolled my eyes, looking towards the ceiling, "Is there anyway Stepheen and I might speak in private?" I asked him.

  "The Goddess Stepheen regrets that she has not yet obtained that level of power, William."

  I sighed, "So, it's all through you then?"

  Oliff nodded, "I am most humbled by the goddess's choice of me, to be her voice."

  I nodded, "Okay then. Do you have any maps? I need to know where Cenewyg is, if you have any idea of just where that may be."

  "Ah, Stepheen tells me that you are here to strike down the vile champion of the evil Fuerston! Such a weakening of him would undoubtedly serve our goddess well!"

  I tried not to roll my eyes again, "Yeah well, whatever. What information do you have?"

  "Oh, quite a lot, William, we have maps, and we can show you on them where the temple of Fuerston lies! Which is where you would most probably find his vile champion."

  "Been dealing a lot with Cenewyg have you?"

  "In the last two months he has attacked several of our smaller camps, murdering all he has caught, men, women, even their children. He tortures them quite severely when he kills them, and he has gone as far as to desecrate the graves of our dead."

  I nodded and yawned, I was really in need of a good night's sleep. "Yeah, that sounds like Cen, all right. Though I'm surprised he'd go out and risk his life, seeing as he has no powers."

  "Oh, but he has," Oliff said. "Stepheen says that because he was already a demigod here, that will not change, even though you have since removed the means by which he became one."

  "Well, that's great," I sighed, "here I thought I was hurting him."

  "Oh, but you have hurt him! His power will no longer increase, so he remains incredibly weak with few demigod powers. However, now that those means are gone, he can and does have some of the champion's powers that his god can give to him."

  "Does that mean if I kill him, he'll come back?"

  "Yes, but not for another eleven years."

  "So, what's the point then?"

  "If you kill Fuerston's most vile champion, then you will have eleven years to destroy Fuerston, which will then render his vile champion gone for good."

  I shook my head, that was a lot more of a fight than what I wanted to get involved in right now.

  "So what kinds of powers does he have now?" I asked.

  "He can heal himself, and he can do those things that Stepheen tells me are called 'cantrips.' Those are the only powers he now derives from his evil god."

  "And what about from being a demigod?"

  "His speed, his strength, his toughness. Stepheen tells me that he is also effectively trapped here, his demigod powers, as well as his champion ones, will not extend to any sphere outside of this one, and if he were to be killed off plane, his spirit would not return for reincarnation, but that he would die."

  "Well now, that's some good news at least!" I said with a smile. "So, do you think I could get some food? And perhaps a place to sleep?"

  Qliff nodded, "Of course, let me summon Jebediah, and he can show you around."

  "Thanks."

  Two hours later I was studying a map after a rather filling, if average, dinner. Fuerston looked to be about a week's walk from here, if you went direct. Most people, from what I gathered when asking around, took a longer route, unless they were traveling in force.

  Apparently there were some rather bad areas between here and there, places that had been the target of more than one nuclear bomb, bombs which apparently had some rather nasty side effects on the local flora and fauna. I guess radiation worked a bit differently here, than where I had grow
n up. There it mainly killed things. Here apparently it gave rise to new life forms, some of which were rather nasty.

  "Will!" I heard a woman's voice, one that I knew too! But what was it doing here? Standing up and turning around I saw Dezba! And Joseph too!

  "What are you two doing here?" I asked surprised.

  "What, did you think we were going to let you have all the fun?" Joseph asked laughing.

  "That asshole got me killed twice," Dezba said with a growl. "I want to pay him back just as much as you do!"

  I looked at Joseph who nodded, "He tried to get me killed as well, and if I had stayed on past Circe, I'm sure he would have. Plus there were all those nasty comments of his," Joseph said with a frown. "We started this together; we might as well finish it together."

  "I'm touched, guys, really. How did you know?"

  "Aryanna told us, how do you think?" Dezba said with a smirk.

  "Have you guys been by Steph's church? Talked to Oliff yet?"

  They both nodded.

  "Sucks that she can't talk directly to us yet," Joseph said. "But I'm guessing this is her first church, so it shouldn't be that many more years until she's settled in enough to be able to."

  I shrugged, "If you say so, I don't really know that much about this sort of thing."

  "I'm just surprised she set her temple so close to a portal," Dezba said. "It's only a mile away. Most gods set them farther away than that."

  "I think events sort of determined that," I told them.

  "Oh? How so?"

  "When our child came through the gateway, it led to a holy event." I shrugged at them both, "It had been prophesized, so it made the spot important and the city is now considered holy."

  "Why would it have been prophesized?" Joseph asked confused.

  "Cameron's mother is a god," Dezba said and whacked Joseph on the back of the head, "why the hell to you think?"

  He shrugged, "Like I thought they knew that?"

  I grinned and shook my head, "It was a hell of a thing when he came through, Cen and I were fighting at the time, and well, it was definitely accompanied by a light show."

  "Didn't they come through at the same time?"

  I shook my head, "Nah, it was pretty weird. Had to do with Steph being his mother and all of that, some kind of rules stuff."

  "Actually, Steph is his father, you're his mother," Joseph smirked.

  "Yeah, and that probably made it all that much stranger," Dezba said.

  "So, where do we have to go? And when?" Joseph asked.

  "And what's the story on this place?" Dezba asked.

  "Well, come over here and sit down, and I'll tell you what I know."

  They nodded and joined me, and I went over the map with them showing them where I figured we had to go, to find Cenewyg.

  "So, the war they had used weapons that altered the plants and animals?" Dezba asked me.

  I nodded; I forgot sometimes that she was an American Indian born in the early eighteen hundreds. She didn't have the high tech exposure that the rest of us had.

  "Back where we came from, the same kind of weapons pretty much killed you, but here, well they apparently have had some strange side effects."

  "Magic then," she said.

  I nodded, "Might as well be as far as I'm concerned."

  "Well, we might as well set out in the morning," Joseph said and stretched, yawning.

  "Sounds good to me," I said, "You guys bring any weapons?"

  "I am a weapon," Joseph laughed.

  I looked at Dezba.

  "He's a huge freaking dire wolf now. I think Circe did some tinkering with him, because the hide under his fur is pretty tough."

  I nodded, "And you?"

  "Oliff said he could loan me a carbine and some ammo. I also brought my usual knives and sword."

  I nodded; I had a carbine and a pistol that I'd picked up in the sphere before Chocogo, along with a lot of ammo. I'd also taken the time to buy some really nice austempered swords and knives that I came across while there.

  "Well, lets go find our beds and get some sleep," I told them. "The next few weeks promise to be interesting."

  "Sounds good to me," Joseph said standing.

  "Me too," Dezba said and standing up came over to me with a gleam in her eyes.

  "Hmm?" I said looking at her as I got up.

  "Care to keep a woman company?" she said smiling, "It has been a few years, Will."

  I looked at Joseph who grinned, "Don't mind me, I monopolized her the whole trip here!"

  Dezba smirked, "That he did; now it's your turn."

  I smiled and pulled her into a hug, "Yeah, it has been a while, hasn't it?"

  We got up just before sunrise, I would have liked to have slept in personally, Dezba was still a demanding lover and she'd really put me through my paces last night. But this task wouldn't take care of itself, and just sitting around wouldn't get it done any sooner.

  We left the town on foot as the sun was coming up. I looked at Joseph; he really was a pretty big wolf. Not as big as a wolat, but still pretty damned large; and considering how cool it was in the morning, I was envying him his fur coat. I could shift into my champion form, but I wanted to get farther away from town first, in case Fuerston had any spies keeping watch.

  "So, how do we do this?" Dezba asked as we trotted along.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, we just can't kill him; he's a champion, right?"

  "Not exactly, his status is a bit screwed up right now, because of the limbo thing he got himself sucked into."

  "Why isn't he still in that?" Joseph growled.

  "He had a little cult worshipping him back in his home sphere. Their worship was enough to pop him out, but not enough to do anymore than that."

  "That's pretty messed up," Dezba said.

  I nodded, "I spent the last year wiping them out, so at least he's lost that benefit."

  "So, does that mean we can kill him?"

  "If we kill him, he goes back to limbo, for about eleven more years; because he's still a champion."

  "Well, that's nice and all, but how do we actually kill him?" Joseph growled again.

  "Let me guess, we destroy his god while he's in limbo," Dezba said with a sigh.

  "That is one way," I agreed.

  "You know, Steph's a dear friend and all that, but I don't know if I want to be coming here for the next decade helping to destroy her competition," Dezba grumbled.

  "Me neither," Joseph growled.

  "Yeah, I hear you," I agreed. "But check this out; if he dies on another sphere, he's dead! No reincarnation, because he doesn't have the full set of champion's powers!"

  "So once he's off plane, he's fresh meat," Joseph growled softly. "I like that idea."

  "Yeah, me too, but how do we get him out of this sphere?" Dezba asked. "It's not like he'll leave willingly, not if he loses all of his powers when he does so."

  "I don't know, yet," I said with a shrug. "Maybe we just overwhelm him, and knock him out? Truss him up and make for the nearest portal, then just slit his throat once we're through?"

  "Or eat him!" Joseph growled with a grin.

  "You would, wouldn't you?" Dezba laughed looking at Joseph, who just looked smug.

  "So, we're going to have to keep an eye open for portals," I told them both, "because once we catch up with him, we'll have to make a run for the nearest one. Also we'll have to make sure we don't kill him."

  "Or let anyone else kill him," Dezba agreed.

  "It's too bad we can't just ask his new god, what's his name, Fuerston? It's too bad we just can't ask Fuerston to fire him." Joseph said. "I'm sure that by now he's suffering from a fair deal of 'buyer's remorse.'"

  Dezba and I both snickered at that.

  "Yeah, he's got three champions on his ass now, and what was that I heard about your son, Will? He's some sort of a demigod now because of Cen?"

  I nodded, "Yeah, Cen has definitely screwed this up for Fuerston."

  "Makes
you wonder how much control Fuerston even has," Dezba said wondering, "I mean, he had to know that stealing a champion's child would draw the champion, and he had to know it would probably bring allies as well."

  I shook me head, "To be honest, I have no idea."

  "We can ask him, when we start killing his priests," Joseph said with a short laugh.

  I thought about that, "You know, you may have a point there."

  "How so?" Dezba asked.

  "Well, think about it, if Cenewyg really is causing this Fuerston problems, he might be inclined to look the other way and not send his own people out to help Cenewyg."

  "You mean, hang him out to dry?" Dezba said looking surprised.

  I nodded, "Well, wouldn't you?"

  "Of course, but then I hate the bastard already."

  Joseph nodded, "Me too. But it may not hurt to ask. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

  "Now we just need to figure out a way to ask," I said and thought about that. I'd ask Fel to talk to Aryanna about it, but I got the impression that brokering deals at their champion's behest was not something that a god would be willing to do.

  We spent the rest of the day moving north, through the wasteland, mostly in silence as we kept our eyes open for any problems. We probably could have used a local guide, but we were all moving at a pace best described as a 'lope', that helped us to cover the ground quickly, which most regular people could not have kept up for more than a few hours at best, while we kept it up all day.

  The landscape was, well, different. It started off as a sort of light reddish stone and sand dunes with little in the way of trees and very few bushes, mostly it was grasses and weeds. But as we moved further on, the ground changed, becoming a lighter shade of brown, more like the type of dirt you'd normally see, or at least like what I grew up with.

  Bushes became much more common, and there were the occasional trees, but they looked more like scrub pine, the ones that were alive that is. Most of the rest were stumps, or old dried out dead ones. I guess the war had brought a change to the weather patterns, and things had become a lot drier here than they had been before the war.

  And then there were the ruins: they were scattered everywhere. The signs of habitation that you just took for granted when you grew up with it, like roadways, we crossed several, and they were now just ribbons of broken concrete with grass and weeds growing through them. Then there were the things like houses or businesses that you'd see along the roads, or even just scattered here or there across the countryside. Here instead we found the occasional foundation for a house that once was there, or perhaps some wreckage of some other kind of building, anything made of wood was pretty much destroyed, though buildings made of stronger materials had left anything from a wall or two, to a an empty, trash filled, husk. We'd also occasionally see the mangled remains of either radio towers, or perhaps high voltage transmission lines, even a few rusted road signs as well.