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Chapter 139 - Defeating Destiny
🕑 Added 2020-03-05 13:05:29 +0000 UTC
The anticipation and tension rise as I find a dark cellar filled with crates, barrels, and pots stacked all the way to the ceiling. Whatever Crawling Chaos is moving about in this lightless environment is still further ahead, somewhere in the maze of unused containers.
There's a smell of decay that can't just be explained by foodstuff being forgotten down here for a long time. This place isn't so deep in the dungeon that people would completely forget about it. In other words, it's new and was brought here after that being arrived.
"[What is this...?]" Mereana wonders in a whisper. Her nose is crinkled when she notices the stench, and she looks about in confusion. She can only see within the radius of her torch, so her tension is much higher than mine.
"[Stay here.]" I take the torch out of her hand and walk ahead quickly to prevent her from following me. Unable to come up with any plausible reason for why she should do so, Mereana stays at the door and watches me with a worried expression.
Flann follows me with her usual emotionless face, not in the least concerned about the possibility of a fight between two Cosmic Horrors. Oinos was such a high hurdle earlier that I doubt this one is going to present much of a danger - as long as it's not Mataku.
When I make my way past the shelves and piles of items, I find myself in the center of the large room. It seems to be a loading area, as there's a trap door above, which doubtlessly leads somewhere in the backyard of the pyramid.
Below that door is a lone figure, misshapen and shuffling on unsteady legs, slowly moving in a circle without apparent aim. The signals of a Crawling Chaos are coming from its vaguely humanoid form that seems to be made of black liquid rather than tentacles. It's surrounded by rotten offal, most likely meat to keep it alive down her.
Seeing that appearance, I remember Tokomaha telling me about Sea Witch Rapania's experiments. Something about her using Tahiri's lightning to power some apparatus that turned human experiments into a creature close to my nature. The fact that it registers as one of my kin means that Mataku and Rapania succeeded in creating an artificial Crawling Chaos.
"This is the one I felt." Flann's eyes are fixated on the pitiful being that doesn't seem to have noticed us yet. No matter how I look at it, this isn't my other half, but it feels just like her. I don't have many experiences with feeling others of my kind, so I'm not quite able to tell them apart by how they appear to me in my Chaos senses.
"[Hey, you.]" I try calling out to the creature. The moment I make my presence known, it cranks its oval and blank equivalent of a head toward me. If it had neck vertebrae, they would have been broken by that unnatural movement.
It has no features in a face that looks like thick crude oil has been poured over a mangled human skull. But it's clear that it can see me, as something like a mouth rips open at the base of the oval rather than where a human's jaw would be. With a voice similar to mine in Crawling Chaos form, it seems to be saying something. Or maybe it's just an expression of resentment, as that's all I feel coming toward me from it.
Then it raises an arm, which extends into a spike shooting straight at me. I let it bounce off my chest covered in dragon armor before grabbing it. That's when I feel a prickling sensation in my palm and realize that Mataku must have given it properties similar to Korenga's Black God form. It's soft to the touch, so at least this one isn't indestructible. But that means I can't eat it.
"I'd like to take this along for analysis, but I don't think I can." Muttering to Flann, I point a hand at the artificial Crawling Chaos. A light barrier in the form of a sphere appears around it, cutting off the arm still extended toward me. "What about you?"
"It will only turn into another one." Shaking her head, the blonde girl confirms my suspicion.
"Too bad." With these words, I ignore the prickly feeling and pull the severed arm, which is beginning to twitch on its own, toward me. At the same time, I start a fire inside the barrier sphere to incinerate the creature as it bangs its head against the translucent wall of light.
The winding black limb begins to ball itself together and melt into one solid form. But that suits me fine, as I put a light barrier around the much more compact piece and light a fire inside it as well. Turning up the intensity in both incinerators, I burn the artificial Crawling Chaos and its spawn until not even ashes remain.
Only when I'm sure that the spheres are empty do I undo the magic. My Chaos senses no longer feel anything, so it must have been destroyed without a trace.
I don't know if this one was weak or incomplete, but who knows how many of those Mataku has created by now. Alverost is throwing these new devils at Kairaki, and Mataku is possibly fielding his own army as well. What's going to become of this world?
A pile of rubble very soon, if I don't take care of the moon problem first.
"Let's head back." With these words, I return to where I left Mereana and tell her about my discovery. I'm worried about Asoko since Flann searched for her across the globe and only found this fake. But for the same reason that I didn't want to spend any time on searching for Exla, I can't waste any more on my other half at this point.
When the world around us snaps back to reality, we're back inside the throne room in Arkaim. It's empty, but I instantly expand my Chaos senses to find that the entire castle is swarming with people that shouldn't be here. The Maid Corps were ordered to get to their positions for the shield array and cover the city in light barriers. Even if some of them were still lingering since their posts are closer to the castle, there shouldn't be that many.
"The castle has already been invaded." I state in a matter of fact tone. Then I turn to my girls, who each spring into action without a word. They already know their roles, so I don't need to tell them. It's basically a repetition of what we just did in Kairaki. The only difference is that we won't have to face somebody like Oinos again.
"You're back early. Do you want dinner, a bath..." Senka's voice echoes in my mind, and I feel relieved that she can still crack jokes in this situation. It must mean that it's not as bad as I thought it would be. "... or a war on your doorsteps, again?"
"As always, you know how to make my heart beat faster." With these thoughts, I follow my girls out into the corridor, where I split up from them and head for the nearest window. Before anything else, I need to get a clear picture of the situation. "Give me a report on the moonfall."
"Is that what we're calling it now?" With the sass almost tangible, Senka asks in an unamused tone. Meanwhile, I see that an upside-down city similar to the one over Kairaki is looming over Arkaim. Countless flying demons are zooming through the sky while fighting variously-shaped devils in the air. The streets are filled with battle as well, but I'm confident that my people won't lose so easily.
Unlike during the Siege of Arkaim, the capital of the Dominion is now inhabited by soldiers and warrior families. I had the vast majority of the civilians move to the surrounding four fortress cities because I anticipated an all-out attack from the remaining Old Humans in the future.
"Whatever you did, it caused the moon to accelerate. We have just under four hours." Growing serious, the doll girl gives her verdict. So Oinos' explosion more than doubled the speed of the moon, huh? I'm sure that must have caused Alverost additional headache, aside from the fact that his most beloved creation whom he told to call him father is dead.
"And where will it land?" The massive floating city above us is hiding the moon, but I'm sure it's already pretty huge.
"Northwest of the Dominion, somewhere west of the Ogely mountains." Senka's voice sounds grim as she delivers the result of the astrology lab's calculations.
That's within a thousand kilometers from here, which means that even with a margin of error of fifty percent, the moon will still directly hit Arkaim with its massive diameter of over three thousand kilometers.
"ALVEROST!" I amplify my voice and roar into the sky. The sound causes flying demons and devils alike to scatter in disorientation. I'm not sure the Old Human is even in the floating city, but he surely has microphones installed to hear what's going on around this place.
Suddenly, a massive holographic screen appears in the sky, just as it did over Zohigal. The person shown on it is a boy with green eyes and blond hair - Alverost in his true form. His eyes are bloodshot, and it looks like he cried until only recently. There's a mad determination in his gaze that suggests he's willing to do anything to get what he wants now.
"You!" His voice sounds bitter as he glares at me through the screen. I never expected that he could make such an expression. To me, the Old Humans who stood with Zenlith were all the same kind of brats that had never been educated about compassion and limits. So what would he be sad about? "What kind of trick did you use? How did you defeat Oinos?"
"The power of friendship." I shrug while replying in a mocking tone. I hold some respect for Oinos for fighting me head-on without ever taking any underhanded actions. His creator deserves none of that.
"Don't mess with me!" Alverost yells through his screen. His hair is disheveled as if he pulled at it when he learned of Oinos' death. It seems that he's at his wit's end as well now. "I'm going to put you in a test tube!"
At these words, something large separates from the upside-down city and comes toward me. It's humanoid but has a slightly blocky shape and is white with red and blue highlights. A pair of red wings with glowing red trails of jet exhaust gives it a somewhat celestial appearance, but I recognize what this one is based on. It's a giant robot.
"That's the worst one in the G*ndam series!" I shout at the approaching mecha before growing to match it. But I choose the inarguably superior variant that has a blue torso with a golden highlight across the center of the chest. Pumping my fists, I fly up to meet Alverost, whose expression on the screen in the sky only grows angrier.
Of course, my choice was a close combat mecha into one counted among those that possess the most firepower while maintaining a normal-sized frame. I know that it can also fight in melee range, but if he knows his stuff, he should understand not to get into fisticuffs with me.
Thus, I'll have to make up for the difference with fighting spirit. Alverost's mecha suddenly stops and opens its wings fully before deploying its long-range beam cannon. As the red jets emerging from the boosters on the wings grow in size and intensity, a massive red beam of crackling energy shoots toward me.
The city and castle are behind me, so I can't just dodge. Instead, I create a light barrier around my right palm and catch the beam while plunging forward.
"What are you-?!" Alverost sounds both angry and surprised as I push through his devastating energy beam. He draws back his cannon and grabs the handle of the gigantic sword on his back. It's about as long as his mecha is tall. Where the edge should be is a notch, which fills with a purple beam blade.
"That's what I'm talking about!" I grow two handles in my palms and summon two giant spirit spears on them in place of beam sabers. It's clear that Alverost has lost his cool, as he charges forward with the wing-like jet expulsion trailing behind him in an afterimage.
Our blades meet and expel each other, but I spin around myself and slash at my opponent's head. He dodges by ducking below it and attempts to tackle me with the blade attached to his shoulder. Twisting my body sideways, I grab the handle on the underside of the shoulder blade and rip it out of its mounting before activating its beam dagger function.
He really replicated it to a tee.
With a swing of his two-handed blade, he tries to force me back. But I block the attack with one arm and stab the dagger into his shoulder joint. That's when he delivers a kick to my chest to push me away before activating his jet boosters to take his distance once again. It seems he has realized that he's at a disadvantage when fighting against me in close quarters.
"You're not getting away!" I open the circular boosters on my back and chase after Alverost's mecha. He spins around in midair and raises his beam cannon. "Too slow!"
Cutting off the front of the barrel, I render his long-ranged weapon useless. But due to the momentum of my swing, he has the time to bring down his two-handed sword. I raise my arm and let it scrape along the armguard before drawing back my other hand for a punch aimed at my opponent's chest area, right where the cockpit should be located.
"No, you don't!" Alverost drops his two-handed sword and quickly draws the shoulder dagger, aiming to stab it down into where my cockpit would be if I were an actual mecha.
"This farce ends here." I catch his wrist and deliver a straight with all my power. My fist breaks Alverost's chest armor and embeds itself into his cockpit. Then I channel plasma into that hand before letting the energy explode outward in pure heat.
As the inferior mecha is disintegrated by the plasma, and I look up at the screen in the sky. Alverost is still glaring down at me with incredulous anger. I knew from the start that he wouldn't be coming down here himself. Not even Zenlith did that, even though he should have been very sure of his abilities. So somebody who prides himself on his brains rather than brawn wouldn't risk his life in a straight fight.
"First, your toy. Next, your bigger toy." I point past the screen and gesture at the floating city.
"So be it." Visibly gnashing his teeth, Alverost gathers his emotions and closes his eyes. "Then I'll be the king of the ashes. Have fun down there for as long as the planet lasts."
With these words, the holographic screen disappears. Then the upside-down city begins to float away; he intends to run while letting the moon finish me off.
"As if I'd let you." I mutter to myself and transform back into my human size. But before I can shoot upward and infiltrate the flying city, I stop to think. Would Alverost really be up there? I'd think that after the experience in Zohigal, he would be much farther away to keep himself safe. Unlike Zenlith, he's not immortal, after all.
So is this another diversion?
"Contact Tokomaha. Have her clones go to the Prichet district." I contact Senka in my mind. The affluent Prichet district is where the only door to the underground vault of Arkheim is hidden. Alverost could be throwing everything away to free Zenlith, including two floating cities and even Oinos. In fact, if he's really down there, he might even be risking his own life. "Tell her to swarm the place."
"Understood." Comes the doll girl's quick reply. She's not making any jokes under these circumstances, and I'm grateful for that.
I'd love to take Alverost out myself if he's there, but the possibility that I'm overthinking things is always present. If I let the flying city get away, he might come again with an even bigger army and a new Oinos. After all, if he can create one, he can surely do it again in due time.
Surrounding myself in plasma, I shoot up and straight into the buildings hanging from the futuristic city. It's about one-fourth the size of Arkaim, but I assume it's not filled with people. Surely, a lot of it is just for show.
And as I expected, most buildings are empty or nothing but façades. As I burn my way through the structures toward the perceived core, I expand my Chaos senses to feel life forms all around me. There are several places they're concentrated in, but many of them have dark spots on their bodies. Most are missing parts of their heads and organs, others only their limbs. They're most likely drones, kept by Alverost to do menial labor for him.
I aim for one conglomeration of life forms. Judging by the numbers, that could be a place where the devils invading the city below are being created. When I break through the wall and into the massive facility, I find myself in something that can only be described as a cloning factory.
"Intruder alert!" The nearest drones, some looking like humans, others like demons, all of them with mechanical parts sticking out of her bodies, turn to me with the expressionlessness of robots. Spreading my arms into their individual tentacles, I whip them around and tear the enemies into pieces. As I make my way through the facility, I pull the edible parts inside my body.
The clone vats here seem to predominantly contain the human-sized variant of devils. They're the most numerous type used in the invasion of Kairaki and now Arkaim, so there are most likely more such places in this floating city. For me, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Spreading my mass out, I grab anything that registers as living, rip them to pieces to make sure they cease to be such. Then I pull them inside me for breaking down and adding to my mass. It won't be enough to make up for what I lost against Oinos, but it's better than nothing.
It takes me less than a minute to clean the factory of anything living, though I did leave behind a huge mess of blood and guts. I'm in a hurry after all, so I can't waste time cleaning up the scraps. Taking one last look around to make sure I didn't miss anything important, I begin my rampage anew by turning into a living warhead and burning my way through the wall of the building.
Once outside, I realize that the floating city left behind Arkaim and is rising further into the sky. When I consider the direction this is flying in, it seems to be heading toward Kairaki. The one over there is most likely coming to meet this one halfway, but I feel that at this speed, the moon will have impacted Earth before then.
In either case, there's nothing below us for many kilometers on end, so I can go wild.
"Alverost!" I let out a roar. It's not like I expect him to reply to me at this point; if he's anywhere on this ship, he should be heading for an escape pod.
"What do you want?" But to my surprise, a floating screen appears in front of me. He's wearing a haunted expression, and his face is covered in sweat. Maybe he really is on here.
"What goes up..." With a glare that sufficiently signals my malicious intent, I spread my arms. "... must come down!"
In the next moment, I create an explosion of plasma all around me, emulating Zylos in his last moments, without affecting my own body. The wave of heat melts everything in my vicinity and burns an expanding hole into the center of the upside-down city. It spreads further and further until some important device is caught up in it and explodes.
Several more explosions rock the massive ship in a chain reaction, and the lights of the city go out with a flicker. The momentum carries it forward for another second before it begins to list to one side and fall out of the sky. It seems that whatever keeps it afloat is still somewhat active, but can't carry the weight of the entire structure. It's doomed to crash now.
Alverost's screen has shut off along with the power in the city, so either he's going down with his ship, or he's acting as if he is. I expand my Chaos senses to encompass as much space as I can, to find lives getting snuffed out in the ongoing explosions and fires inside the falling ship. None are separating from it, so either all of them are expendable workers and troops, or there are no escape pods because Alverost never thought it would be taken down.
I stay in the air and watch the city-sized structure touch down on the ground and compress out of shape. With a massive explosion, the last anti-gravity device that was unable to slow its fall sufficiently goes up in flames as well.
There are still some lives inside the wreckage, but they go out one after the other. Even now, there's no sign of Alverost making it out.
"Tokomaha discovered a group of soldiers in black in the Prichet district. All her clones were then destroyed by something invisible." Senka's voice speaks into my mind.
"I knew it." Even as I say that, and the urge to return to Arkaim overwhelms me, I keep watching for Alverost or anybody else escaping from the ship. "As long as Exla is alive, getting Zenlith out of there won't help."
Now that I think about it, why didn't Alverost do what Zenlith did to Exla during the siege of Erbilan? Areteniha is his mother, who seems to be in control of the Imagination Engine. So he should be able to tell her to restrict the cloud girl's permission, not just for a day or two, but forever. That way, Zenlith would get his permissions back and could break out on his own.
The fact that Alverost hasn't done so and gambled on such a direct strategy means there's something else at work in the background.
The Old Humans really fell apart, huh? Kanundra turned into a powerless human and was then killed by Asoko without the latter even knowing who she was. Zylos lost control and turned into a miniature sun that burned up the very atoms of his body. Serent was ground into dust despite trying to be immortal. Zenlith, the Lord of the Sky, was locked up in an underground vault to rot. Now, Alverost sacrificed Oinos for a cheap diversion to put everything on a gamble.
I wonder what happened to Shelnir. The fact that Serent came to face me must mean her healing was already complete half a year ago. It's alarming that I haven't seen or heard anything about her handiwork in all this time.
The Akashic Records allow her to predict the future enough to write and enact elaborate scenarios - although I broke several of them simply because I was more than she had bargained with. At this point, she should have gotten a good grasp of my abilities and input it in her supercomputer. She's sure to strike again, possibly even right now.
Now that I think about it, why was Oinos in Kairaki rather than here? How did Alverost know I would go there rather than directly to the place where the moon would impact Earth? Maybe it was Shelnir who told him that I would be in the capital of Adanak at that specific moment, so he sent Oinos to intercept and keep me there long enough to free Zenlith. But that would mean we broke her prediction once again; she definitely didn't reckon that we could defeat him that quickly, if at all.
"Tell Tokomaha to bring Aurelia to the Prichet district." I speak to Senka in my mind. "Shelnir might be there with Alverost."
