But as he looked forward, at the dirt in the grimy streets, the skyline was painted in the blues, grays, blacks and yellows of the skyscrapers. It was picture-perfect, and most importantly, it helped clear the voices in August's head.
Even if he did kill God, he might kill himself if he couldn’t get the voices to stop.
August continued his walk. The streets were emptier than he remembered. He didn’t know what day it was, or the month for that matter. But he did know that a city this large never slept at six o’clock in the evening.
It was eerie; as he walked past the various shops and stores, they was closed and boarded up. There were trash and garbage in the streets. He never saw a single pedestrian. He stopped as he came up to a still-fresh blood stain on the ground.
“Where are you from?” he asked the stain.
He looked up at the building to his left. The words, God is Dead, was written on it in blood. That seemed like overkill to August.
He heard shouting down the street. A young man ran out from an alleyway. A bang rang out and he fell hard. He struggled up and looked at the shooter. A soldier of the God’s Hand walked up to him.
The man begged and pleaded with the soldier. A paint can rolled away from him. A young woman came from behind the soldier and smacked him in the head with a metal pole.
The pole broke over his head. Blood came from his scalp but he didn’t fall. He was Touched and angry. The soldier unloaded into the man and turned for the woman.
She screamed for what August assumed was her lover. The soldier grabbed the woman by the neck and snapped it.
He released her and she fell limp, seizing on the ground.
August stared at her on the ground. Why didn’t he save her? He had the power to. He hadn’t felt a single empathetic emotion. Why?
It was because death was meaningless to him now. He had died a million times. The people in front of him were lucky to only have experienced it once.
The soldier looked around and spotted August. He turned his gun on him and fired.
August held up his hand; it glowed its million-color glow. The bullets melted in his hand. A ball of pure energy pooled into his palm and he fired it. The soldier blew apart in a colorful fashion.
August smiled. The explosion was loud enough to bring some attention to him. That should bring them. He had the power to do anything now. Let the gods come to him. Let him kill them with his own two hands. Let him revel in their blood.
With this power, he didn’t need Sara anymore, nor his brother, or a lover. With this power to warm his soul, he didn’t need anyone anymore.
“No.” August shook his head. He released the power, the warmth left his body. The voices were coming back. He stared up into the sky and took a big breath. The voices disappeared. The hate and violence he felt slowly went away.
He walked up to the woman. She was still. It was too late. She choked to death. Her dead eyes looked at him.
“Sorry.” If he was himself, he would have tried to save her and the man. He needed to get off the streets before he did something rash.
The sound of chanting came from the alleyway the dead couple came from.
The sound grabbed August’s attention.
August walked through the alleyway, toward the sound. It was coming from the street the alley led to.
He exited out into a large street. The tallest buildings of the city surrounded him. All around him were small skirmishes between protestors and soldiers.
It was a riot.
August watched as people fought back against the God’s Hand. Yelling into the skies for independence, for freedom. Pushing and shoving against their chains.
This was what he used to want. A revolution. A rebellion. But that was the old August. And that was gone, along with the anger and the lust for change.
Gunshots rang into the air. August backed up into the alleyway.
This wasn’t his fight anymore.
This wasn’t his city or his people.
It was in turmoil and it was theirs.
Without Sara, without his old self, he was just a man lost in time and space.
His life had no more meaning.
He had no more fight left.
He finally came to an understanding.
Once he helped his brother kill God.
He was going to kill himself.
August walked into a hotel lobby. It was a five-star hotel, the kind of hotel August had always dreamed about staying in his old life.
He looked at the directions his brother gave him. After the address, it simply said “top floor.”
The elevator dinged open. August stepped out into the sounds of laughter and cheering blasting his eardrums. In front of him was a large conference room. Tables and chairs were covered in beige cloth.
The seats were filled with people of all kinds. Men and women, dressed in suits, ties, and dresses, some in simple pants and button-up shirts, a few were even dressed in their rebel clothes. Rags and throwaway clothes they used to fight in.
Waiters brought out food. Roasted chicken, barbecue, steak, and fish. They were going all out.
August found an open seat by the windows. Outside, the skyline was lit like a summer dream haze.
He watched as everyone celebrated around him. Dancing, cheering, getting drunk with the various liquors the waiters brought them. Some puked in the trash, and then drank some more. A few were passed out on their tables, drool coming from their mouths.
How could they celebrate like that? Partying so hard they were puking themselves? When they were heading to their deaths tomorrow?
Tomorrow, they were going to attempt to kill God, attempt to take down Ifor, and they were acting like fools.
“August!” Kevan walked up to August and sat next to him. “Glad to see you here.”
“Well, what else would I do?”
“Stare at paint drying?"
August shrugged.
"Did you get any food?”
“No, I’m good. I’m not really hungry.”
“You need to eat. We have a big day ahead of us.”
“So what? You want me to act like everyone else? Like a drunken fool?”
“We’re just having a little celebration. It might be our last, so who cares if some of us are getting a little crazy? You don’t know what we’ve been through to get here.”
“I know exactly what you’ve been through.”
“Do you? Every one of us knows what our chances for success are tomorrow. So, why can’t we celebrate like it’s our last day on Earth?”
August didn’t know how to answer.
“Daddy!” Two screaming toddlers ran up to Kevan and he scooped them up in his arms.
He swung them around. “How’re my angels doing?”
Luna walked up to him. “They’re doing fine. They’re just excited to see Daddy.”
Kevan smiled. He glanced back and August was gone. “Come on, I got a table for you over here.”
August leaned against the balcony railing. He looked back through the glass doors and watched Kevin and his family walk off to another table.
Good. They didn’t see him. He looked back over the city. He had to escape the weight of it. The room blocked out the voices in his head, but just replaced them with loudness.
The view from the balcony was beautiful. Sara would’ve loved it. The hotel was a tall building but in the distance, the tower of Ifor still towered over him.
Showing that even though humanity had come up so far, the gods were still higher than them. Unreachable. Untouchable. Until tomorrow.
August shivered as a strong breeze hit him. He was still trying to get used to this world. The wind chill felt different. The smells were slightly off in such a way that he couldn’t put his finger on it.
This universe still wasn’t his. Was it right to come to this universe? Or would another one feel any different?
A door opened and closed behind him. Kevan leaned on the railing next to him. “Thanks for le
aving as quickly as you did.”
“No problem.”
“Tomorrow morning, the Omniscient Man will take you to the gateway to heaven. If you don’t destroy the Radiant, then we won’t be able to kill He.”
August didn’t reply back. He just stared into the sky.
“Is there anything wrong?” Kevan asked.
August looked down at his feet.
“Come on. You’re my brother, you can tell me anything. I’m here for you, even after all the things we’ve been through.”
“I had to die a million times. To get to where I am now. I’ve experienced a million lives and a million deaths. I have lived as much as one man could. I’m not the same person I was before. The anger I had, the angst, the motivation, is all gone. I’m just a shell of my former self. I’m just some soul lost between life and death.”
August wasn’t sure how much the Omniscient Man had told Kevan about what he did to get him here. Maybe he told him everything.
“No. You’ve just accepted who you are. I can tell that you are August, the heat I feel from you, the unbridled love. Even though you’ve done some things I don't exactly agree with.”
“How can you tell, though? This isn’t my original body, this isn’t my universe.”
“You are the same. I can tell, I’m your brother and you’re still mine. You are just not as much of an asshole anymore.”
August gave a small chuckle. He stared down at his hands. He was August, he was Kevan’s brother, Patrick’s seed. But the voices were still there, the uneasy feeling he had. The feeling of a disconnect with the world.
Kevan said, “You don’t have to help us tomorrow, if you don’t want to.”
“No. I want to help. There are some things I started that need to be finished,” August said. If nothing else, when he stood in front of He, he could force him to answer the questions his old self always wanted to ask.
Why create humans just to subject them to suffering?
“After all of this, maybe we can finally play catch again. With you and my kids."
“Sounds nice.”
August looked back at the tower of Ifor. Kevan stared with him.
Tomorrow, he was going to kill God.
17
Tears of the gods
The morning sun peered over the peaks of the skyscrapers surrounding the Tower of Ifor. Queen stared out of the top floor office window.
Behind her was a utilitarian-looking office; hundreds of workers went about their business, making sure Ifor ran at the best level of efficiency. Only the best worked on the top level.
Down below, she saw protestors encompassing the front of the building.
“Early as usual,” she said under her breath. Two years, she put up with this crap. The rebels had gained way too much ground thanks to the Omniscient Man.
There had been sightings of them in the city. The gods had been too lenient. It took a while but she managed to force the gods to personally partake in this war, before it was too late. She finally had them under her control.
No more humans fighting humans. The Touched were useless, as the rebels had gained weapons that could kill them.
But the rebels were inexperienced with their powers. The gods had lived and grown with theirs. When they joined the battle, it would be over for Kevan and his little rebels.
It was time to put them down. Starting with the protest below.
Queen turned to one of her office workers. “You there, contact the head of God’s Hand for me.”
“No,” the woman said. She was wearing a trench coat.
Queen had already turned back to the window, not expecting her worker’s refusal. Her eyes flew open when she realized what the woman had said.
Queen turned back around. “What did you say?” Queen nearly frothed at the mouth.
“You don’t control me anymore.”
“You dare speak to me in that manner? Security, take her away!” Queen demanded but nobody moved.
The woman opened her jacket and revealed a bomb strapped to her chest. Twenty other workers revealed bombs under their various dresses, shirts, and jackets.
They all stood and looked toward Queen. The workers who were not in on whatever was happening, simply looked around nervously, unsure of what to do.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Queen asked.
“It looks like your rule is over Queen.” Kevan walked into the room. He swung around his rifle like it was a cane.
“This woman's life was destroyed because of you. Her family killed by the weapons you authorized the humans to make so we could destroy ourselves. By the soldiers whose souls you took in return for power.”
“You forced this woman, these people, to do this?”
“No, they’ve all come on their own accord. Each and every one of us has a story similar to hers. All of us have the same antagonist. And that’s you, Queen.”
“You’re a fool if you think you can defeat me. I am god! I am the one who reigns in the heavens. You will bow down to me! You will submit!” Queen screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Very well, then. This ends now. You will pay for your sins against humanity.” Kevan snapped his fingers.
An office worker came from behind Queen and grabbed her, trapping her arms.
“Get off me!”
The rebels with the bombs took off their vest and threw them in the air.
Queen’s eyes flashed to a button on the desk in front of her. A button that would summon the gods. A fail-safe.
She leaped back, slamming her captor into the window. He fell limp and Queen jumped for the button. The air turned into flames as the bombs went off, shattering the windows, as Queen’s fingertips tapped on the button.
August stared at the ivory tower. There it stood, a few miles away from him in a sea of blue and steel. The tower of the gods, the headquarters of Ifor, a symbol of oppression, a skyscraper of glass and metal, a man-made building of awe.
The top exploded open and rained down hundreds of bodies over the city.
He knew his brother wasn’t one of them. He couldn’t be. He had more to do still. A family to raise.
August was tired. He was tired of killing, dying, being an awful person, a murderer. How many more innocent people would he kill? How many lives would be lost before he could dethrone the creator?
He hoped that after today, not a single one. This was it. He was going to kill He, even though the anger he had for him was far gone. August would go through it for his brother, for humanity. It had to be done, and only then could he rest. Could he finally atone for the sins he had committed?
The voices in his head weren’t yelling anymore.
He peered at the colorfully radiant blade in his hand. With this blade of ultimate power, his voices were forced away. He had to end it. He had to end everything.
“Put that away.” The Omniscient Man walked up next to him.
He willed away the blade; his voices slowly came back into his head. He forced them back as he concentrated on the Omniscient Man.
August looked at the flames that engulfed the Tower of Ifor.
The Omniscient Man said, “That’s your brother’s fight, you have to believe in him and finish your own.”
August nodded.
The Omniscient Man led him through a door into an abandoned building. “I can open the portal here.”
Why couldn’t he do it on the street? Did he not want to be seen? That would be hard to do with the white ball over his head.
“Are you ready?” the Omniscient Man said.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Let’s go over the plan.”
“I already know the plan: kill He, separate the Radiant, and enjoy life. Easy.”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“Like what? I’m all ears.”
“Do you believe in fate?”
“That seems to be the question of my life. No, I don’t.”
“Well, He does. He foresaw his own deat
h and created this thing called the Omega Key to keep the Radiant with the world, which means if you don’t destroy it, even if you kill He, the gods will keep their power and their grasp on the world will never leave. You will need to destroy the trinity. The Omega Key, the Wavering Radiant, and He.”
“Didn’t you tell me this already?”
“I need to restate just how important it is.”
“How do I destroy the Key and the Radiant?”
“A simple slash of the sword will do. With the Radiant, my power will have to come in contact with it. It may take a while, so I suggest you don’t get lost.”
“And how will I find all of this? From the stories I heard, the Radiant is a sea of infinite clouds or something.”
“You can use my power to find it. With your enhanced senses, you should be able to see it from an incredible distance. But a warning, even with my power, the Wavering Radiant is an expansive place, it’s easy to get lost.”
“Don’t get lost, got it. Can you hurry it up? The rebels are already fighting.” August was getting worried about his brother.
“The portal I’m going to create for you will place you in the gateway to heaven, the real gateway. Not this fake gateway the gods created on the top of the Tower of Ifor to teleport them to Mount Olympus.”
“Go on.”
“The reason I had you come here was because the Radiant is a very special place. The reality around it is extremely dense, as it is creation itself. I had to get close enough to it to pierce through its density. When I create a portal, you will only have an hour to destroy the Omega Key and kill He. After that time, I will have to take your power.”
“What! Why? Does Kevan know about this?”
“He knows everything.”
“So you’re telling me, I have to find and kill He, the Omega Key and afterwards you’re going to take the power you gave me?”
“Yes.”
“And what if I fail?”
“I’ll just tell you what Kevan told me when I told him about our little predicament: ‘I believe in August enough to do what’s needed in time.’”
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 226