by Noam Oswin
I remember the look of betrayal on her face. I remember her words.
Even you?
She told me she was betrayed by her people and locked away. Betrayed by people she apparently trusted. She did not want to feel betrayed anymore. I understood now that Janje and Zlosta were not two different people, they were the same person, just with different active parts. The Janje I knew in the cave was desperate for attention, desperate for friendship and Zlosta is no different. She wants companionship at all costs.
She did not want to be betrayed. She did not want to feel betrayal.
This was problematic for me, considering her goals. It wasn’t a question of if I betray Zlosta.
It was not a question of when I betrayed her.
With [Duality], it was a question of how many times.
But if she doesn’t remember it, if, to her, it never happened – could it be called a betrayal?
I told myself that this was for my own eventual good. For my benefit. This was a way to prepare for the eventual day I would need to leave Zlosta, the day I would stop her from carrying out her insane plan of killing all life. It was for the good of this world, what was it, Alamir? Yes, it was for the good of Alamir, and it was for my good as well.
[Duality]
[You have split Paths]
[You are now in Path A]
For the second time, I thrust my hand through Zlosta’s chest. For the second time, I watched her face contort into pain, rage and disbelief. For the second time, I was engulfed in flames.
[You are now in the True Path]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
How many times could I keep attacking her in an alternate path and letting her kill me until I became completely immune to her methods of killing me?
As many as it took.
[You have split Paths]
Chapter 21
Choices
“This – this is the Creek of Refuge.”
“I know.”
“I’ve been looking for this place for years.”
“I had a feeling.”
Zlosta whipped her head in my direction. Her red eyes were as sharp as ever. “How did you find this place?”
“Talent.”
“That – that’s not possible. The Creek of Refuge is enchanted to ensure that no one who is actually ever looking for it, finds it.”
“I wasn’t looking for it.”
“But I was –”
“And you never found it.” I gestured to the burnt, ashy remains of a place that was once my Domain. “I found it for you.”
Zlosta levitated over the empty crater that was once a lake filled with water and life. “The serpent –”
“Agkistrodon. He’s dead. Killed him a long while back.”
Zlosta whipped her head over to me. “You – you killed the First Kadulja’s pet – but that’s not possible, its hide is immune to magic and its venom is –”
“Said to be capable of killing elephants at a graze, yes – yes – I killed it.”
Zlosta gave me a wide berth. Her red eyes were shining, and the way she looked at me reminded me a bit of the few two hundred... three hundred... or so times she looked at me before she killed me. I’d lost count of how many times I’d died at her hands.
“Janus... you’ve been odd for the past several hours.”
“Odd?”
“How did you know that Agkistrodon’s venom was capable of killing elephants at a graze?”
“I fought it, remember?”
“No, I mean –” Zlosta ran her hand through her dark hair. “That expression. That’s the exact expression used when the Kadulja narrates the story of Agkistrodon. How did you know that expression?”
Because you told me. “I don’t know. Maybe I heard it somewhere. I did spend some time as a Shade.”
Zlosta frowned again. I smiled at her and gave her a thumbs up. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the destroyed creek. She was a bit suspicious, but I suppose it was impossible for me to hide everything.
Asides from using it to die by fire, [Duality] could be used in the most literal sense, as far as navigation went. Navigating through the burnt Final Sanctuary Woodlands was task that was made easier when I could walk north and south simultaneously, and then select which path possessed the better merits.
There was also its information retrieval value. Before I attacked her and was burnt to a crisp in another reality, I started asking Zlosta random questions about herself, about Alamir, about the forest, her dreams, and more.
Those realities, [Paths] ended when I died, and Zlosta would never remember telling me any of it, but I remembered. I remembered, and I learned more and more about her without ever letting her realize it.
I knew more about Zlosta than she knew of me. I knew her favorite color, the fact that she was only nineteen when she was chosen to become Kadulja, whereas the average age was fifty. That she was considered some sort of genius before something happened that changed her view of the world. I learned that she could use Fire, Water, Earth and Wind as magic, and as a Night-Witch, she could control and cast massive buffs on masakh – monsters.
One of the things I could never get her to talk about was how she was betrayed and trapped. Mentioning the Staff of Mudar or her imprisonment would instantly clam her up.
Another thing I couldn’t figure out was how she could always sense where I was. In three different [Paths] I’d run away from Zlosta rather than attack her, just to see if I could escape. I failed in all three [Paths] as she somehow tracked me down and placed her slavery curses on me.
For all the power I had, Zlosta still dwarfed me in terror. I’d tried dozens of ways to put her down. I randomly beheaded her, and I watched her severed head float up and back unto her body. I beheaded her and then shot the head until it was unrecognizable, and I watched chunks of meat and brain heal and re-attach itself back on her neck. I poisoned her with [Strong Venom Secretion] and [Excruciating Toxic Bite] but neither poisons even registered to her. I tried [Weak Acid Secretion] and other than listening to her skin sizzle for a while before healing, it did nothing.
I eventually tried suffocating her by suddenly burying her into the ground via [Earth Control].
She freed herself with her magic, before the signature ball of fire consumed me and that [Path] ended.
Her claim was correct. She could not die. Not unless I killed Meg first, and if I couldn’t kill her – how was I supposed to kill something that was several thousand times more powerful?
“You... did it.”
“Did what?” I asked, cautiously. I hadn’t been listening to what she said.
The earth beneath our feet rumbled a bit. I could hear the sound of pounding. Something beating against the earth at high speed. Something charging. Many things, all of them, charging. Zlosta turned in the direction of the noise, before turning back at me.
“Did you ever wonder why you never met another masakh in this forest?”
“No.” I was a bit too preoccupied trying to survive to care about why I never ran into other monsters. I didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth.
The sound of a storm of charging creatures became loud enough that Zlosta had to shout to be heard. “It is because of the Three Keys!”
I found myself instinctively using [Duality] in case things went sour.
[You have split Paths]
[You are now in Path A]
“The Creek! The Serpent! The Sage! You’d have to destroy all three to remove the protection... and you did. You did.”
Zlosta floated into the air. “Now they can come here! Now, all of them can leave the Pretender’s forest and come here!”
The Pretender – Kataramenos.
In many [Paths] before I tried killing Zlosta, I asked her about the Pretender, the being called Kataramenos. Sometimes, she answe
red partly. Sometimes, she was evasive. What I was able to gleam was little. Kataramenos was a woman who was said to be the Queen of Night-Witches. A being so powerful she could whisper and create Anathemas.
She was called pretender because she claimed to be the Mother. She claimed to be the original creator of monsters. The world at refused to believe that she was the Mother – a physical incarnation of endless darkness. So, they called her the Pretender, and agreed never to speak her name again, lest they insult the Mother by doing so.
It was all very fascinating, but not at all interesting to me. I could care less about who was who or what was what. I just wanted to escape Zlosta, evolve some balls and create a life for myself.
“They’re here!”
It was my first time seeing other monsters. Seeing everything from fantasy books and mythology come to life. Dullahan, headless corpses in faded wispy armor with skeletal horses charging at the forefront. Minotaurs, large beasts that would have dwarfed Adolf, my deceased golem, charged through the forest with rippling, bulging veins, that looked hard as concrete. Black hounds with their coats burning with blue fire howled as they rushed forward. Creatures with the torso of a naked woman, and the bottom of an anaconda slithered forward. From the air, a group of half-bird, half-woman creatures with frightening visages soared.
Spots of standing, bipedal green creatures with pointed ears came following the horde. Objects were in the grasps of numerous of them, long and curved, elongated and pointy – and I knew what these were. No, more than that, I knew what they were.
Goblins.
Armed Goblins. Shields, swords and armor complete. They were not small and diminutive. They were bloody beasts. Several of them reaching at least two meters tall or seven feet tall, they possessed the stockiness and musculature of body-builders or wrestlers making heavy usage of steroids.
By appearance, the goblins were all green-skinned, pointy-eared and point-nosed creatures. However, their eyes were not dumb like the rest of the monsters. Each and every one of those orbs possessed a glint of intelligence and understanding. Some were watching, suspicious. Others were irritated. A small few contained disinterest. They marched forward, in unity, impeccably.
In this reality, I found myself asking, “Where... where did they all come from?”
“From the Pretender’s Forest,” said Zlosta. “Where they’ve been waiting, for thousands of years to be able to march through the Final Sanctuary and unleash chaos on the world of men. Waiting... for you.”
The audible crack from spinning my neck in Zlosta’s direction was deafening. “What?”
In another reality, I asked no questions, and Zlosta still tells me they’ve been waiting for me.
“There must be some sort of mistake here.”
“There is none.”
A goblin stepped forward. Aged, yellow eyes and a sporting long beard like a wizened Asian martial art sensei. A jagged wooden staff rattled in his left hand as he approached. A dark leather cloak obscured his hunched back. He walked forward, his gait quicker than I would expect from someone looking so old.
Old, yes, but not weak.
Muscles ripped on every form of his exposed front. Muscles that had no right being on someone who looked aged.
Ilikbolg
[Servant of the Pretender]
[Leader of the Giblon Tribe]
High Goblin Shaman
Lv. 77
“We told you that we had been watching you, child of the mother,” Ilikbolg’s voice was not soft or raspy. It sounded fresh, youthful, as though I was listening to a man in his twenties.
“We told you to kill the Kadulja, and that you would be rewarded for doing so. This – is your reward. You, Janus the Sage-Slayer – are our champion.”
Special Quest: Felling Trees Completed.
There is a roar and clamor of beasts shouting and hailing – praising me. Numerous eyes of monsters, turned in my direction, not in the form of predators ready to attack, not looking at me as a threat, but as... a leader?
This cannot be happening –
“It’s an old tale,” Zlosta whispers as she lands by my side. “The one who removes the keys of the sanctuary is the one who will lead the charge of the masakh against Alamir. The one who brings about the Age of the End.”
Zlosta smiles. “I always thought it would be me.” She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“All I did was kill a snake because it ate me. Kill a Druid, because she tried to kill me. And the Creek was destroyed when said Druid was trying to kill me. I don’t see how that qualifies me to become a champion.”
Ilikbolg laughed. A large, hearty laugh. “Within its Domain Agkistrodon was immune to magic and weaponry. It could grow sixty feet in length in the span of a second and was invulnerable to all conventional forms of damage. You killed it. Sages, Warriors, Shamans and Sorcerers would be nothing but sitting ducks before it – and you say you aren’t worthy?”
I didn’t know that. All I did was sting it to death from the inside – thinking about being a Trojan Horse. I never realized how accurate that sentiment was.
Zlosta grabbed my hand. “We’re going to lead them. You and I. We’re going to spread the Mother’s will. We will return Alamir to darkness, and in doing so, we will end all suffering.”
End all suffering?
End all suffering?
The manner and conviction of which she said something so ridiculous was almost enough to make me laugh. Here I was, being declared a champion of monsters, a title I didn’t even want, and Zlosta was trying to force her way into it. I would be happy to hand it all over to her, I would be happy, if I could get away from this sheer madness.
Most people would only have one choice to make, once, and they would seal their fates and destinies. I on the other hand, realized that there were two roads I could travel.
In this reality, [Path A], I stand tall before the monsters, I raise my hand into the air, and I yell as loudly as I can.
“I WILL BE YOUR CHAMPION!”
The sound of the clamor is deafening.
In another, I stand, and I tell them, “I DON’T WANT IT! PICK SOMEONE ELSE!”
In that reality [Path B], there is silence. There are growls and snarls. There are complaints. There are several hundred angry monsters and goblins and they rush me as one. They rush me faster than Zlosta can intervene. Minotaurs move like speeding trolleys, and Dullahan on horses turn into racecars.
[You are now in the True Path]
Somehow, despite having the power to choose a path I wished to follow, it felt as though I never have a choice in the things that truly matter.
/∞/
The small army of monsters marched behind myself, Zlosta and Ilikbolg. There was an excitement bubbling in the air amidst themselves, eager to move past the Final Sanctuary and begin spreading unspoken levels of carnage to human villages and civilizations. From what I gathered, they had been trapped in the Kataramenos Forest for even longer than Zlosta had been sealed.
“I cannot wait to find myself a young supple human woman!” Ilikbolg laughed. “My ancestors will be proud when I mount her.”
I kept a stable expression, turning instead to Zlosta. “Did you hear him?”
She nodded. “I did.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“I thought the goal of masakh is to end suffering?” I hissed.
“It is.” Zlosta said. “Their suffering ends when we kill them. The greater the suffering they experience before they die, the more grateful they will be once we end their suffering.”
It was a form of logic so twisted I could not even wrap my head around it. “And what if I were to make you suffer?”
“I already suffer. As Meg’s Avatar, I suffer, and I am unable to end my suffering.” Zlosta lets out a bit of a sigh. “I envy those who can.”
I don’t say anything to Zlosta and we continue the rest of our march in silence. The more I get to know of her, the less guilt I feel from t
he fact that I would one day have to ‘betray’ her. To betray her irrevocably, in the [True Path] where it could not be undone. I could try to explain to her why her method of thinking was so ridiculously wrong, but it would get me nowhere. Logic would not work on someone who was willing to let me die rather than let me leave her.
Admittedly, dying at her hands several hundred times in the span of several hours was also partly responsible for the increasing lack of affection I felt for her.
We moved until we noticed the terrain change. Until before us, the forest began to recede. Until ahead of us, we realized there was a wall. A gargantuan wall erected, and I realized immediately that something was wrong.
“What is the meaning of this? Someone placed a wall around the end of the forest?”
That wasn’t my concern. No, my concern was the fact that the wall was not ancient. It was not made of bricks or resembled any form of medieval architecture. It looked... modern.
No – not modern... futuristic.
The wall was smooth and seemed to be made of a shiny metallic substance that glistened slightly in noon. Atop the wall was a long stretch of barbed wires humming with electricity. I could spot towers that resembled airplane command stations standing on the other side of the wall, with thick glass obscuring whatever lay beyond.
It was out of place in a world of Minotaurs, Sages and Goblins – so out of place and jarring that for a second I believed everything around me was a figment of my imagination, and I was finally returning to reality.
I took the necessary precautions.
[You have split Paths]
[You are now in Path A]
“I need an aerial view.” I told Ilikbolg. “Tell the harpies to fly up and get us news of what they see – and they should not, under any circumstances, try to fly over.”
In another [Path B], I told them to merely wait.
Ilikbolg barked some commands in something I could not understand, and I watched three half-bird half-woman creatures soar into the sky. They flew higher and higher, reaching about equal level with the wall.
Their heads exploded.
Several monsters cried in shock as they were splattered with blood, and the three headless bodies of the harpies dropped effortlessly to the ground, and without hesitation I closed the path.