<11>
‘Where is Rei?’ said Mei Lin as she and AA finally caught up to Eru. AA could only shrug in reply to her question. ‘I thought she was right behind us.’
‘There is no need to worry about her,’ said Eru as he drew his gladius. ‘I’m sure she’s with Nii-sama right now.’
‘What do you mean?’ hissed Mei Lin.
‘I mean that, instead of worrying about her, you would be better served worrying about yourselves.’
‘You think you stand a chance against us, human? You’d be nothing more than a greasy spot on the ground the minute I realise that getting information out of you is no longer worth the effort.’
‘Such scary words,’ said Eru evenly. ‘I guess resistance against such odds is futile.’ He raised his gladius high above his head. But as a human, I shall resist nevertheless.’ He brought the gladius down in a straight line in front of him.
A rush of something erupted from Eru’s blade. In an instant, AA called forth a network of barriers he had prepared in anticipation of a surprise attack. Eru’s slash passed through it almost unscathed; it was deflected only slightly, creating a deep cut on AA’s right cheek instead of cutting his head open.
‘That was a proper Abaddon barrier!’ said Mei Lin. ‘What the hell was that attack?’
‘Humans resist,’ said Eru as he raised his gladius above his head once more. ‘That is our nature. We resist our place in the universe. We resist the powers that govern the universe.’ He brought his gladius down for a second time. ‘We resist the very laws of the universe.’
AA clapped once, and then clawed the air in front of him, first horizontally, then vertically. A dense network of blue and green lines formed in front of him. At the same time, Mei Lin leapt into the air, formed three spears of light, and threw them all together at Eru. All three missed him by a hair’s breadth, while his attack shattered AA’s barrier. A crackle announced its disappearance, its entire force spent, and nothing reached AA this time.
‘I shouldn’t be missing at this range,’ muttered Mei Lin as she bit her thumb. Hell, the spear of Quirinus shouldn’t be missing at all…
‘What are you?’ she said. What kind of power is he using?
‘I am exactly as you see, a human given the powers of both of your races.’
‘Like hell,’ said Mei Lin. ‘Your power’s nothing like the Abaddon’s or the Seraphim’s.’
‘Then you fail to see the significance of the word “human”.’ He raised his gladius once more. ‘Allow me to restate my answer, then. I am of the Immanuel, a god among this world.’
* * *
‘You’re—’ Rei’s words got caught in her throat. A thousand questions flooded her brain. He was her saviour. He gave her this curse. He gave her a purpose. He had disappeared before she could figure out what to do with her life. The reason she became a mercenary was that she knew no other way to live except by fighting. And so she fought; and thus she lived.
‘What does this all mean?’ was all she could ask.
‘Hm, you cut right to the heart of the problem,’ said the hooded man. ‘You always were mature for your age.
‘What this all means is that, at the end of this, one of us will join the ranks of the Elohim. This fight right here will be the conclusion of a thousand-year experiment.’
‘What fight?’ said Rei as her eyes widened in shock. ‘I do not wish to fight you.’
‘Then you will die,’ he said evenly. ‘And this round of the experiment will have failed. But I shall simply look for someone else who can reach what you have reached, who can stand where you now stand, and give them the same choice, until one of them says they will fight.’ He paused to let his words sink in. ‘Is this how you wish to die?’
‘I don’t want to…’ The last word was left unspoken. They both knew what she meant.
‘Then you will have to fight. One of us will not leave this place; that’s how it has to go.’
Rei’s hands were trembling as she gripped her sword. It was all too sudden. She met a saviour she had not expected to see again, and now she had to fight a duel she did not wish to fight.
But she had to live. She had thrown her parents’ lives away just to live. She will not give up a thing so dearly bought.
The hands gripping the sword stopped trembling. With a deep breath, she readied a lunging stance.
‘If anyone wishes to take my life, then I will not hold back, not even against you.’
With a single step, devoid of fear or uncertainty, she charged, sword drawn, towards the man to whom she owed her life.
* * *
AA didn’t bother blocking Eru’s attack this time. He leapt out of the way, watching as the trees behind him got split in half.
‘A god?’ said Mei Lin. ‘Is that what you humans are? Then why did you to resort to looting the bodies of the dead to protect yourselves during the last war?’
‘Unfortunately, most of us humans don’t have these powers. We don’t even know that it is possible for us to gain them.’ He paused for a bit. ‘Do you know why humans were created? The Abaddon represent the glory of permanence, the Seraphim the beauty of transience. What of humans? What do they represent?’
‘I know what you’ll represent in a few seconds, wind bag,’ said Mei Lin, a sigil glowing by her feet. ‘A pile of vulture feed. Vulcan!’
A hammer with a head bigger than AA’s entire body and whose handle was as tall as a tree appeared in front of her. With a single effortless swing she brought it down on the unsuspecting Eru—or so she thought.
‘That was close, too close,’ said Eru in an unconcerned tone. The hammer had struck the ground inches in front of him.
‘Missed again,’ snarled Mei Lin. Is he using an illusion? Something that deceives the senses?
‘Ei-chan, I’ll probably have to take back a bit of what I gave you. Any old sigil won’t cut it against this worm.’
‘A worm?’ said Eru. ‘How apt. some worms grow to become butterflies, you see.’
‘And you’re one of them, I take it?’
‘No, not yet. Probably never. I’m a few steps short of becoming one of the Elohim. And that is was humanity represents. Reaching upward for something just a little beyond their reach.’
‘Wait, why would the Elohim—why would gods create beings like that?’
‘To learn by example, of course. Your gods tried to discover the reason for their divinity through arts and crafts; the ones who created us were the more practical sort. They didn’t even give us a proof of their existence—instead, they left us to our own devices to discover everything. I envy you for having names for your gods—we don’t even know what ours look like.’
Mei Lin opened her mouth as if to speak, but she just kept silent and nodded, letting him speak on.
‘Our creators wanted to know how they became gods, so they gave us the chance to be like them if we searched hard enough. They thought they could learn how to become higher beings by watching us struggle to reach godhood.
‘They didn’t, however, expect us to gain the power to destroy our planet and open a path to another one.’
‘Destroy…?’
‘Yes. That power is what opposes you now. Shall we continue this duel, then?’ he said as he raised his gladius.
That was the signal for AA to act. He had not been idle while the two were in conversation; he had placed various spell sigils at certain points, aware that Eru had been keeping an eye on him as he did so. This was why he mixed it up by pretending to mark some areas, or marking other areas so quickly that he didn’t break stride as he did so. He hoped that his measures would be enough to deceive him.
He drew his tonfas and held them at the ready. He then turned to Mei Lin and did something he had rarely done: he spoke.
‘I’ll take him on,’ he said, surprising her in the process. ‘Undo the seal.’
After Mei Lin’s initial shock subsided, she shrugged in reply. ‘If that’s what you want.’ She grinned at him. ‘Take him down.’
He nodded in reply, and then rushed towards Eru.
‘This is what I had expected from the beginning,’ he said. ‘Your talents are lost casting barriers from afar,’ He dodged one of the tonfas crashing down on him, and then used his gladius to block the other. Surprisingly, the short blade managed to stop cold a mass of metal as heavy as a full-grown man. But AA was not fazed; he used his free tonfa to attack from the side.
Now let’s see you dodge tha— thought Mei Lin, but the air shimmered briefly as Eru took a single step backward. The swing missed him entirely—even though it should have been impossible for him to dodge it with just a single step.
He got that far with just one step. That’s not the sigil of Mercury; it was like the ground just shrunk for him.
‘I’ve probably given too much away with that,’ said Eru, still in his now-customary unconcerned tone. ‘But I didn’t expect that. Your agility is unbelievable, legionnaire.’
That was no illusion. He really was there, and then he wasn’t. Can this guy… manipulate distances? That is a godly power.
AA remained unperturbed by the human’s display of supernatural strength and speed. He just readied his stance and charged at Eru again.
As he did so, a series of purple columns of light lit up the sky behind him.
* * *
The hooded figure easily dodged Rei’s charging slash with just a backward step, but a simple flick of her wrist sent the broadsword coming at him from below. He produced from somewhere within his voluminous cloak a short cane, and he used it to parry her blow. Rei was about to channel Abaddon power into her wrist to get past his guard when a series of purple columns erupted from the horizon behind him. She leapt back and crossed her Abaddon-reinforced arms in front of her, thinking that it was an attack from him.
‘So, the Abaddon would actually use that ultimate weapon,’ said the hooded man to no one in particular. ‘I guess they’ve been pressed far enough—the presence of two Seraphim royalty in their own land, followed by our unexplained attack. I should have expected as much’
Rei hadn’t even got over her bewilderment at the pillars of light when she noticed the wall of the Abaddon lands backlit by their glow.
‘Are we outside the walls? Just how far have we travelled?’
‘Huh? Ah, yes, I brought us a few leagues south of the town you were staying in.’
‘How did you—?’
‘Control over space and time. This is the power that I have, and the power I wished for you and Eru to have.’
‘Control… Someone with this power has been around all this time…? Why couldn’t you have led the humans and kept us safe?’
‘Sorry to disappoint you, but with my powers right now, I am no match for the Prince of Olympia or the imperium of the Seven Hills. I can’t even guarantee victory against the princess of Eleusis.’
‘So this is what our duel is all about? Why do you have that power in the first place? What kind of being are you?’
‘I am human, exactly the same as you.’
‘Then how did you gain the power you have? You couldn’t have stolen that from the Abaddon or the Seraphim.’
As she spoke, distant purple columns of light erupted from the other side of the horizon. She considered the light for the first time, and she felt no comfort in their glow, just a feeling of dread that made her hair stand on end.
‘The Seraphim have chosen to use the sheolim as well. We humans might get a peaceful homeland out of this after all.
‘As for the details of how I got this power, I’m afraid that the complete story is beyond me. Nevertheless, I shall tell you what I know.
‘I was very young when it all happened, and the ones who told me about it, the ones who actually witnessed it, have all died almost a century ago. According to them, back in the old human world. I was the subject of an experiment to reach godhood. It was an experiment conducted in all secrecy by the royal family of the country I lived in. I myself was a part of the royal line, the second son of a second son of the current king, one deemed distant enough from succession as to be expendable.
‘My country was on the verge of a civil war. The nobles chafed under the rule of my grandfather, until one day they decided that they would endure it no more. What I heard was that they gathered their soldiers and met in the palace of the most powerful baron in the kingdom. There they planned to elect their own king, pledge allegiance to him, and then start a war to overthrow the current ruler.
‘But the Duke of Camlann reported that his spies had discovered a plan to turn me into a weapon, and they feared that my completion would render their resistance meaningless. So they decided that their first blow in the war would be directed against me.
‘As the battle between my protectors and the rebels raged outside the mansion where I lived, my divine power was unleashed. My guardians claim that it was an accident, that the fighting near me had nothing to do with it. Somehow, I doubt that. In any case, I could not control my power, and it cracked the world in half, as well as opened a gate to Geos, our current world. Most of humanity, I was told, died as Autremonde crumbled, and only a few had managed to escape through the gate I had opened.
‘I myself was sent through the gate, and my arrival in Geos triggered the mobilisation of the Abaddon and Seraphim forces that would eventually lead to their war. They were afraid of the power I wielded. Perhaps they wished to bring it under their control. Or perhaps they simply wanted to kill me. In any case, my retainers, the ones who told me this very story that I’m now telling you, died protecting me. Soon, I learned how to control my powers, and so I hid it, and then I turned the two powers’ search away from me by turning them against each other.’
* * *
Hyperion, Prince of Olympia, sat on his throne as he looked at a messenger kneeling before him.
‘Speak,’ he said curtly.
‘Your majesty, our scouts have seen purple columns of light illuminating the north, behind the walls of the Abaddon lands.’
‘Purple columns!’ gasped one of the robed ministers who sat below the Olympian throne’s dais. ‘So the report his majesty has received, that the Abaddon also have sheolim, is indeed correct.’
‘Why would they use them now?’ asked another.
‘Are you naïve? They clearly wish to lash out at us for the incident at the human capital, even if they have no evidence that one of the Seraphim was responsible.’
‘In fact,’ said a voice that was noticeably quieter than the rest of the agitated crowd, ‘I have received reports that the incident in question was an internal issue that some of the more… enterprising among the Abaddon have used to foment the current crisis.’
‘So they accuse us falsely and then point a blade at our necks? Your majesty, this is unacceptable! We should respond to their threats in kind.’
‘Why isn’t Cassandra here now…?’ sighed the prince to himself as he let the clamour of his council wash over him. He already knew their answer if he asked for their advice. He wanted his sister to provide a contrary opinion, to be the rock upon which their waves of rashness would be dashed.
Furthermore, she had, for some reason, plenty of information about the Abaddon, and right now he needed information to ensure that he would make the right decision. For instance, she was the one who told him that the Abaddon have sheolim in their possession. A sheol was a ritual that used a spirit invocation of unknown origin, calling upon the spirits of the fallen to bring about destruction on a distant place. Due to their existence, walls and armies were no longer sufficient to protect their lands. Maybe even Olympia itself would no longer be safe.
Threatening the city of Olympia would have been impossible under normal circumstances. This was not due to its walls, nor due to the number of hoplites stationed between it and the border. The ultimate guarantee of security was the Prince himself. It was said that the Prince of Olympia was, under normal circumstances, just as strong as the Princess of Eleusis, who had almost single-handedly annihilated two elite Abaddon legions. But within the walls of Olympia, the Prince was stronger than the rest of the Seraphim combined. And he was sure that the Abaddon imperium was just as strong within the Seven Hills. They were, in essence, two invincible kings in a bloody game of chess.
‘What do you think of all this, Julian?’ he directed a silent query at the imperium, his Abaddon counterpart. ‘You know you cannot destroy me. I know I cannot destroy you. What will all this bloodshed be for, then? Unless, you think…’
…that the rules might have changed. The appearance of the sheolim rendered all forms of protection—walls, armies, sheer distance—meaningless, and perhaps even the two kings of the chessboard were no longer as invulnerable as they had thought.
He turned back to his ministers. They were all Seraphim of considerable power, both physically and politically. They had means of enforcing their wills, either through words or through the strength of their own arms. It would take much to unnerve even the lowest among them, but as he looked at them one by one he saw a deep fear in their eyes, as well as mistrust. For all their powers, there was too much in the current situation that they did not understand, and what little they understood—the previous war, the Abaddon legion’s deployment, the sheolim—was enough to make them afraid. Their fear came from this fact: they had harmed us before, and they could—and would—do so again.
And against all that, the only response they knew was to strike back.
Why did we go to war? It was not the first time he had asked this question. It was not the first time he had asked this question today. Neither side had no territorial ambition, neither financial greed nor need, no strong ideological motive, to fight each other. Their father, who died almost ten years ago, was the last of the generation who knew life before the war. And so every living Seraphim and Abaddon knew nothing but war against the other side. It was as natural to them as the sun rising and setting, but very few considered why.
‘Your orders, my lord?’ said the messenger, who had not moved a muscle since delivering his message. At least there is someone here who lives in fear and knows a healthy way of dealing with it.
‘At the very least, we do not want to leave ourselves at the mercy of their anger. We need to show them that we are ready to protect ourselves.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Prepare the sheolim ritual. But unless I say so, or unless the Abaddon direct one against us, it is not to be used.’
Own Worlds 