by Skyler Grant
“Ashley,” I said.
Hubris said, “It’s fine, Dad. I won’t hurt her, much. Come on, if you want to test your skills.”
Ashley rolled to close the distance and Hubris flickered away. Sorcery was back in play. When Hubris called in those shadowy other versions of herself, Ashley lashed out with her God-killing blade. There was a frightful burst of green energy and the image exploded like shattering glass.
“Someone has something she shouldn’t have,” Hubris said.
“I bet you always say that when someone is better than you,” Ashley said.
Hubris went low with a sweeping kick and Ashley flipped over it to deliver a kick of her own.
The green glow around the dagger was intensifying and Ashley’s flesh was starting to take on a slight glow as well.
“Ashley, you need to stop now,” I said.
“Fuck that,” Ashley said.
I moved to grab her and she sent me flying with a kick that shattered ribs. Ashley wasn’t this strong, Ashley had never been this strong, but that seemed to have changed.
Cobalt was back in the fight and charged from another direction only to get sent crashing out one of the windows.
Hubris gestured sharply and Cobalt rematerialized in the room, smashing hard into the floor.
“You may be good, but I’m the best killer there is,” Ashley said.
Hubris clapped her hands and the God-killer dagger spun out of Ashley’s hands to be trapped in a glowing cage of light. Ashley charged her and stabbed at her ribs with the other blade, but a blast of blue light sent Ashley slumped to the ground and unconscious.
Hubris was bleeding from the wound, wincing as she gestured and a palme glyph appeared over the wound.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine. What happened to her?” Hubris asked.
“I don’t know. Not exactly, Diamond gave her that weapon awhile back to kill a God. It had a lot of warnings to go with it and we’ve been too busy to follow up,” I said.
Grimacing, Hubris opened the magical cage to stare at the dagger.
“Ugly work, but it isn’t the dagger alone,” Hubris said.
“Do you have any ideas?” I asked.
“A pretty good one. I’ve got an eye for patterns and this has my evil-stepmother all over it,” Hubris said. “Perhaps we should go and ask her?”
I thought I was done being surprised by Elsora’s planning. It seems she may have a few surprises left.
Chapter 25
It was a rather beat-up party that made its way back to Castle Sardonis. Hope and Cobalt were tough and scary in a fight, but they didn’t have my rapid healing. Fortunately when we got back to the Crucible Shard a version of that healing kicked in for everyone.
Ashley remained unconscious, and Hubris and I soon had her in one of the castle’s bedrooms.
I sent word for Elsora.
“Hubris, welcome. I’ve very much been looking forward to meeting you. There is a problem with Ashley?” Elsora asked.
“Yours, I suspect,” Hubris said.
Elsora gestured and darkness billowed around the bed, a cloud of pitch black engulfing Ashley and concealing her completely for several long moments before vanishing again.
I stared at my wife and waited for answers—for all that they might be lies.
“You didn’t tell me that you turned Veros’ great machine against him,” Elsora said, troubled.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” I said.
“You do. Veros was growing more powerful. How?” Elsora asked.
I thought back on it. It wasn’t that long ago, but a lot had happened since.
“Veros had it set up to lure adventurers to a great arena. There they were debuffed, dosed with some gases to weaken them and inflict perma-death, then killed,” I said.
“Not just perma-death. An effect so that those who killed them would gain all the victim’s experience and power,” Elsora said.
I did remember that part now that she mentioned it. I’d dosed Veros with those gases to make sure he stayed dead.
“Ashley struck the killing blow,” I said, in sudden understanding.
“And in doing so absorbed the experience and nature of the God of Light. Strangely enough it isn’t the only problem, or even the worse one.”
Hubris extracted the magical cage that contained the dagger and presented it to Elsora. Elsora didn’t bother with the cage and just plucked out the dagger to stare at it.
“Not your work. It doesn’t have your feel,” Hubris said.
“I should hope not. You’ve a good eye,” Elsora said.
“The best. May I become your apprentice?” Hubris asked.
“You’ve decided against staging a one-woman assault on Ashera? I thought certain you’d try. Planned on it, in fact,” Elsora said.
“This girl got past my defenses and hurt me, and I’ve had a look at you and the sorceries surrounding you. I’m not just unfounded arrogance, you become the best by learning from the best,” Hubris said.
Elsora gave a thin smile and kissed my cheek. “Things do tend to veer off into unexpected territory where my husband is concerned. You’re welcome as my apprentice, it will be nice to have another keen mind about. The dagger is linked to an ancient and powerful entity which has now tangled its fate with Ashley’s.”
“Anyone we know?” I asked.
“The God of Snakes. I doubt you’ve had the displeasure,” Elsora said.
That was a new one to me. I remembered how the dagger had been making Ashley high and asked, “Ashley has somehow been absorbing power from all of those who died in the arena, as a result of her killing Veros?”
Elsora made an expression of distaste.
“Bad news?” I asked.
“It makes things complicated. I really wish you’d listened to me and left Veros well enough alone,” Elsora said.
If we hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had to order Earth destroyed and Ashley would be her usual self. No, that move hadn’t had a lot of upside.
“Veros was opposed to you and your plans. I thought you’d be happy to have him gone, however many other complications might come,” I said.
Elsora gave me a long look.”If you see a chess piece staunchly opposed to my plans, but you know I’ve held back capturing it for a time, you can be sure it is by design. This game I play with Ashera could well prove fatal for either of us and on a cosmic level that would be very bad. Veros was something of a replacement for Ashera, should the both of us fall.”
Veros was no Ashera, but then I could see it. Ashera represented the light in their little contest and he was an incredibly powerful God of Light.
“Is there any replacement for yourself?” I asked.
“Several potentially, you among them, my dark-hearted King. Walt as well, with the Death-hand he is quite the growing force of destruction,” Elsora said.
That was flattering, sort of.
“I should be on that list. I would do it better than you,” Hubris said.
Elsora flashed her one of her smiles. “No doubt. Killing Veros was quite the complication. Ashley replacing him is in many ways even more complicated.”
“You can’t see them, Dad, but the magics are so knotted up as to be almost incomprehensible,” Hubris said.
“What we have happening is Ashley simultaneously trying to shed her current incarnation and become a Goddess of Light, even as a God of Snakes is attempting to shed its skin and become her,” Elsora said.
Elsora was right. That sounded complicated and bad. I hated complicated and bad.
“I’m not even going to try making sense of all this. I’m just going to ask how I can make it better. Is there something I can kill that will help?” I asked.
“No,” Hubris said.
“There is a solution and it does involve rather a lot of killing. You’re going to need the Witches and Walt for this one,” Elsora said.
“Why? I understand the killing. If you kill the God of Snakes, then
it will stop splitting Ashley in two and she’ll be free to fully incarnate as the Goddess of Light,” Hubris said.
“I don’t think Ashley much wants to be a Goddess of Light, nor should she want the future that was planned out for Veros. It’s difficult, but I do think that we should be able to avoid that,” Elsora said.
“And Ashley will be okay?” I asked.
“Of course not. You don’t go through all that she has endured and turn out fine, her psyche has been bent and mangled, and I’d call that far from okay. Your friend has become something of a monster, but then we are building a universe friendly to monsters,” Elsora said.
“You really can’t fix her?” Hubris asked, saddened.
Elsora reached out and took her hand. “You ask for your sisters, I know. You’re afraid for them.”
“I have been blessed with my fate. They carry larger burdens and I wish that I could help them to forget,” Hubris said.
I thought of Walt slowly losing all of who he had ever been to the Death-hand.
I said, “Forgetting isn’t the answer. I know it is tempting to think that you can just scrub who and what we are away, but it doesn’t help. We’ll help them to find a way to be themselves and be happy.”
That was possible. I’d already seen it with Pestilence.
Hubris frowned, but nodded.
“Have you heard word of Earth?” I asked Elsora.
“Mela has finished exterminating the human population. We’ve now got a production line set up reincarnating them into mechanical bodies and DLC has orders to help them adjust to their new forms and aid them in becoming combat-ready,” Elsora said.
Great, I’d weaponized my entire home planet.
“I don’t know whether to thank her or curse her,” I said.
“I’ve heard she also fused the corpses of those who fell to her nano-plague and turned them into a sort of tech-heavy zombie army. That Goddess has managed to get you not just a single army, but two out of a world once filled with your enemies. By the way, you thanked her and sent her some very nice gifts,” Elsora said.
Well then, I guess that settled that. I couldn’t fault the logic. I decided I wouldn’t let it bother me. It was over and done with and there were bigger challenges ahead. Old Liam would not have been able to let the past go so easily, but I wasn’t that man anymore. I was stronger than that now.
“I once offered to invite her to dinner with Ashera,” I said.
“I doubt we’ll have time on our schedule until the wars are done, but I’ll see we have her over instead. For now, you need to go after the God of Snakes. I’ll have Cobalt and Hope go and fetch Despair and Hate,” Elsora said.
The last two of the Nine, they’d be safe with their mom and sister.
Chapter 26
It was a different group than our usual that went to the world of the God of Snakes. Ashley had been left behind. That left me, Yve, and Walt of our original band and in addition we had the witch Sara and Hubris.
The world of the snakes was hot and humid, massive stone ziggurats sitting in the middle of a thick jungle.
There was a faint tremor in the air, and an omnipresent hissing that echoed endlessly.
“I don’t like this place,” Hubris said.
“I kind of like snakes,” Yve said.
“How could anyone like snakes?” Hubris asked.
“You make as many garden metaphors as I do, you get fond of them,” Yve said, glancing around the surroundings. “Can you pinpoint their God?”
Hubris tilted her head towards the largest of the structures. “You were a Goddess. You don’t need to be the embodiment of pride to know how this works.”
She had a point. I’d dealt with enough deities—they liked to put on a show.
Together we set off towards the building.
“We’re being watched,” Hubris said.
I could feel that. I didn’t see any snakes, but they were there around us, I could almost feel them slithering.
Sara traced a red sigil in the air and a shimmer surrounded us.
“A bit of defense in case we should require it,” Sara said.
We would, eventually. We hadn’t come here in search of peace this time, we’d come for war.
We stepped inside the ziggurat and found the center to be one massive chamber. A sickly green glow provided illumination, and brilliantly colored walls were dizzying to look at. That dizziness was because of motion—every wall was covered completely in snakes shifting and crawling. The hissing was almost deafening, a continuous rattling that seemed to sink into our very bones.
A throne sat on a large pedestal, the figure upon it looking to be some fusion of man and serpent. The face was human enough, but he wore only a loincloth and much of his flesh had the sheen of scales.
“Slither your way inside, all of you. I’ve been expecting you,” said the man.
“I take it you’re the God of Snakes,” I said.
I wasn’t surprised that he was no snake. I’d learned that lesson when it came to Maria, who although she was the Queen of Spiders had nothing spiderlike about her.
“Call me Snake, it’s simpler,” said Snake, rising off the throne. His motions were smooth and fluid, dangerous.
“I hear that you’re trying to move into our friend’s skin,” I said.
“My skin. In using my blade she took some part of my essence inside of her and has fed on it well. In time, I’ll be in my new form and leave this one behind as an empty husk,” Snake said.
I did appreciate a bad guy that didn’t sugar-coat things. I tried to be that sort of bad guy myself.
“I can’t let you do that,” I said.
“But you can,” Snake said, coming close and looking us over. “Oh, I know you’ve some sentimental fondness for the girl, but I’ve seen enough of you through her eyes. You won’t let that hold you back. I’m not interested in being your enemy, I’m your very good friend.”
Told it like it was and then tried to sell me on how he was actually doing me a favor. This guy was stealing my routine.
“You’ve got a good line. Serpents always do,” Yve said. I swear the look she gave him was a flirtatious one.
Snake let his eyes play along Yve’s form. “In Ashley, you’ve a puny little human whose mind is snapping from all she has seen. Ashley was never meant to inherit such power and she is incapable of holding it. I on the other hand can.”
Yve and I didn’t have anything more, we really didn’t. That didn’t stop a surge of jealousy and the desire to punch this guy in the face.
“And what would you do with that power, Snake?” Yve asked.
“Help, of course. A grand battle, a chance to help reshape reality itself. It sounds thrilling,” Snake said.
“And what about Ashley?” I asked.
“I’ll devour her. Gobble her right up.” Snake gave a negligent shrug. “I know all of you. You know there is no power without sacrifice.”
Sara leaned in and whispered into my ear, “I leave this one to you. I know what Elsora requested and it may work, but so might listening to him.”
I’d wiped out an entire planet lately, ordering the death of everyone I’d ever known and loved—albeit so they might wind up reborn later. It should be easy to accept the death of another friend, if there was something to be gained from it, and Snake was making a very real offer. Ashley had grown unpredictable, dangerous, and suffered under the weight of all that had been done to her. She seemed in no shape to handle the power that filled her. I couldn’t say Ashley always stood by me when I needed it—twice she’d tried to betray me.
It wouldn’t have been a difficult decision for a decent person. It also wouldn’t have been a hard one to make for someone purely evil. As always, I seemed to be somehow stuck in the middle and suffering it. I was embracing the whole King of Darkness mystique, but I just didn’t want to let a snake god eat my friend. Put that way, it was simple. I wouldn’t.
“Stick to the plan,” I whispered back to Sara.<
br />
Sara grinned at me. That was a scary sign. There was one thing that the witches really enjoyed and that was their dark magic. Sara clapped her hands and a sound echoed out like the peeling of a bell. On the walls the snakes exploded—thousands, millions of them tore themselves apart and the blood ripped out of their skins to form interlocking, magical sigils in the air.
I was very glad we hadn’t decided to settle things with the witches with violence. That was pretty damned impressive. Snake thought so too, judging by his scream of outrage.
“Go,” Sara said to Walt.
Walt rushed towards Snake with the Death-hand glowing and got backhanded with a blow that sent him tumbling across the chamber. Even disoriented by this magic Snake was fast.
I rushed in to grapple with Snake. He swiveled to sink his teeth deep into my neck. It wasn’t a vampire thing, I rather wished it were. I’d been poisoned a lot, but this venom was something special. Completely paralyzed and in incredible agony, I dropped to the floor. I could feel my organs liquefying inside of me. I’d likely survive this, but I was well and truly out of the fight.
Yve blasted Snake with a stream of fire coming from her fingertips. The God of Snakes didn’t seem to care, his divine essence trumped whatever power Yvera was packing.
Hubris was on him in an instant. This serpent god might be fast, but she could match him blow for blow and send him inching backwards.
“Don’t kill him,” Sara said.
“I’m not the pacifist in the family,” Hubris said, as she threw Snake backwards with a blast of blue energy.
Snake wasn’t one to stay down for long and was moving back towards her with rapid movements from side to side. Another torrent of blue energy erupted from Hubris’ hands and sprang around him, binding his arms to his side and holding him in place.
Walt had gotten back up in the meantime.
“Hand him the dagger,” Sara said.
Hubris pulled the glowing cage out of her armor and opened it to reveal Ashley’s dagger. Walt grabbed it with the Death-hand.
The sickly green light of the dagger mixed with the faint blue glow of the Death-hand as Walt drove the blade into Snake’s neck. It was a messy business, using the small knife for severing a head, but Walt had time and held by Hubris’ magic Snake wasn’t going anywhere.