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Chapter 136 - Coming to Armeria
🕑 Added 2020-02-07 16:44:52 +0000 UTC
I realize that there's no way I can find Exla in the time that's left. Eleven hours until the moon falls, and she could be anywhere in Yagrath, which covers an area nearly as big as the Dominion. I don't know whether or not she can see the moon from there, but if she has, I'm sure she's already on her way here.
What I can try to do is find Asoko and my children. Flann says that she has the same ability as her father to locate a Crawling Chaos no matter how far away they are. For a world-ending event like this, I would like them close to me. And I'm sure they could help against Chaos-Juzual and later Mataku.
That's why, for the time being, I'll have to make good on my promise to take my girls with me this time. But they can't survive on the moon, so I really shouldn't have said those thoughtless words earlier. I want to protect them, but treating them too carefully could hurt their pride.
"I have found them." Flann informs me just as the number on the moon instantly switches to a ten. I've been staring at it without blinking to figure out how Chaos-Juzual does it. And in doing so, I've avoided talking to anybody for the past half an hour or so.
"Alright." I turn around to Kamii, Hestia, Aurelia, and Tokomaha. They're ready to leave with me, wearing their respective combat gear and equipment. Then my eyes fall on Rolan and his party, as well as Halthor and Svanhild behind them. So she has deigned to come out as well, huh?
"What should we do?" Rolan asks while resting his remaining hand on the hilt of his sword. It belongs to the glowing blade that he swung at Maou-mama back then, which was timed with Zenlith's disintegration beam that ultimately killed her.
"What do you think you can do?" I reply to his question with another. Not to sound condescending, but this has long since surpassed the realm of human abilities. Even if Rolan is fast with his magical sword, a Crawling Chaos isn't an opponent he could ever hope to fight. Other humans with more powerful imaginations have tried and failed.
"Believe." He suddenly replies with a strangely determined expression while looking straight into my eyes. For the first time since our reunion, he doesn't break eye contact with me immediately and holds his gaze. "I heard that Zenlith is immortal because of our belief that he is."
"You want to do the same with me?" I feel my eyebrows shoot up involuntarily at the idea. While it's true that Exla said her brother is immortal as long as humanity believes he is, it's not as easy as having just one person out there imagining it. It requires a collective unconscious imagination of millions to make that possible.
Leaving aside the irony of elevating me into godhood through a new religion, it doesn't really help with the current problem. I already consider myself pretty close to immortal. It's everybody else that I worry about.
"I already believe that." Gram states with a grin. He has slowly opened back up to me over the past months - more so than anybody else of the party. Whereas Rolan and Luna treat me with the respect that a former mortal enemy and current monarch deserves, the big man has reverted to a more casual tone. Of course, he doesn't dare to employ it in front of Rewera, but the maid leader is currently busy directing the Maid Corps. "But you're not invincible."
"Nobody is invincible." I reply with a frown.
"We know that." Svanhild suddenly steps forward and regards me with an expression that sends me mixed signals. The Drills from my academy days has grown up into a fine woman. But she still has the childish streak she so thoroughly displayed during our classes together. "But we want to believe that you can be."
This is an admittance I didn't think she could ever make. And judging by her inability to look me in the eyes, she must feel the same. She was one of the Chosen Knights directly affiliated with Zenlith and believed down to the core of her being that he's invincible and just. It was hard to make her accept the truth about the false gods, but her words mean that she has finally come around.
"Don't try to find a god in me." I reply with a sardonic smile. She glares at me before realizing that it was a joke and turning away in indignation. "But I guess it can't hurt to have people believe in my success."
"Sounds like the common shounen trope of friendship overcoming everything." Senka's sarcastic voice echoes in my mind. That's my thought as well, but I can't completely disregard it as a placebo. After all, Zenlith has been exploiting something similar to it for millennia. "Anyway, I wouldn't be cluttering the channel with pointless chitchat if I didn't have anything to report. We know where the moon will impact."
"I hope you won't tell me to come all the way to the astronomy tower and take a look at the map." I reply while suppressing the urge to smile to myself.
"I won't fall into the trap of the 'come take a look at this'-cliché." The doll girl replies, and once again, I can imagine her shrugging. "It's going to land in the ocean north of Kairaki."
Considering there's about twice as much water as there is landmass on this planet, it's not surprising that the impact area is an ocean. And the fact that it's near Armeria makes it quite convenient since we're heading there anyway. It's also a continent nearly as big as Enorath and Ceogath combined.
"Can I ask you to hold down the fort for when Exla arrives? I can't wait for her here." I ask in my mind while turning to my girls to give them the signal that they should gather around so that Flann can teleport us. "Rolan, go pay Kleihn a visit. She could have something for you."
"Huh?" The one-armed man blinks in surprise.
"And stay in the castle. I believe something will happen here." Glancing at the other members of the party as well as Halthor and Svanhild, I silently include them in this statement. The bard left for Enorath to propagate the truth about the gods shortly after my coronation, so these two will have to make up for his absence. "See you after all this."
With this short farewell that sounds too casual for the grave situation we're in, I look at Flann. She walks over and into our midst before peering up at me with a questioning gaze.
"Where to?" She asks, not at all daunted by having to teleport so many people at once.
"Kairaki." I reply, assuming that she knows where that is. But then I realize that this is a dumb request and shake my head; Kairaki is bigger than Arkaim. At least it's not as bad as Mithra saying that I should meet Mataku on the dark side of the moon. "To Asoko."
The first thing I notice is that we're in the middle of a plaza in Kairaki, which seems to be on fire. When I look around, I find that people are running in the streets, and Asoko is nowhere to be seen. At least the girls are all with me, standing around Flann in the center while getting ready for battle.
"I can't deal with this right now..." I roll my eyes and turn to the blonde girl. "Where's Asoko?"
"I could not bring you directly to her because of this." Flann raises her hands to gesture at the chaos around us. Smoke and embers are rising to the darkened sky even though Armeria should be on the light side of the planet right now.
"We don't have time for this." I grind my teeth and look around. That's when I spot a soldier directing the flow of people and extend a tentacle toward him. The man screams in terror when he's grabbed and pulled toward me, swinging his curved sword to try and cut my tentacle. "[Hey, have you forgotten your saviors?]"
My shout in his language causes him to pause in surprise before he frantically looks across the girls behind me. Tokomaha should have left a pretty strong impression on the people of Kairaki, most of all on the soldiers who defended the city back then. It hasn't even been a year since the war, and this man appears to be in his thirties, so he must have been there at the time.
"[Aren't you the God of Growth? And you are the God of Nature. Why are you here?]" He refers to the little goddess and then asks me in confusion. Now that he has calmed down, I gently place him on his feet.
"[That's not important right now. Tell me what's happening.]" In a friendlier tone from the one I used before, I ask the soldier. He stares at me for a moment but then gestures into the smoke-covered air. That's when I finally realize that the darkened sky isn't only due to the smoke, but also because a massive black upside-down city is floating above Kairaki.
"[That thing appeared out of nowhere and rained fire on the city!]" The soldier explains with a haunted look. "[Strange new gods - no, monsters... they came down from it, and our gods are fighting them.]"
"[Where is Kouratua?]" Aurelia steps forward from behind Hestia's wings and asks. The man's eyes widen when he sees her golden form.
"[The God of Gold is defending the castle.]" He points at the pyramid, his expression showing that he doesn't bear much hope regarding the God of Gold's success. There's smoke billowing out of several of its windows, meaning that the battle inside is already in full swing.
"That's where we're going then." I turn to my companions, who nod in grim understanding. Then I address the soldier again while pointing at the nearest city wall. "[There's nothing you humans can do. Help the civilians evacuate the city.]"
"[That's what we're doing. We can't fight these monsters.]" Shaking his head, the man motions to leave but looks at us one more time. "[Be careful. Some of them shoot exploding arrows without wielding bows. Others throw fire that melts even steel.]"
"Alverost." I mutter as the soldier returns to his job of directing the civilians away from the fighting. This feels like a repetition of the sneak attack on my mother. But unlike that time, he's using futuristic weapons and a giant floating city to wage open warfare with no regard for the world learning the truth about the Old Humans.
Now that Zenlith has been captured, and Zylos and Serent are dead, he must have grown desperate. Maybe he understands that he has lost all chances of retaking Enorath and wants to make himself a new home in Armeria. Even though possibly thousands of gods - humans with strong personal fantasies - live here, it's still the better option than fighting against me. After all, I'm the person who could best several Old Humans with my fantasy.
He just didn't know that I have a connection to this place as well.
"Grab on." I gesture at Kamii and Tokomaha, who can't fly on their own. Hestia and Aurelia understand and take off into the air before I follow them. Looking across the burning city, I find beings that resemble biblical demons fighting the minor gods of Adanak.
Those must be Alverost's new creations rather than demons from the Dominion. There's little variation between the individuals, but many wield futuristic guns, including grenade launchers and laser rifles. They don't seem to possess any intelligence, as they run through the streets or climb the buildings without any coordination. Some don't even use their ranged weapons and chase after civilians as wild animals would.
I won't have to feel any remorse in killing these creatures. Not like I would feel much more if they were humans; enemies are enemies no matter what race they are.
Unlike with Arkaim, I don't feel any connection with the people of Kairaki. The only ones important to me are the comrades I fought with back then. And of those, Mereana is the only person who's still in this city. I didn't stay long enough to know who succeeded the throne after the fall of the God King, but Mereana is most likely in the palace. Thus, I have no desire to save the fleeing civilians running from the devils - as I'll call this new wave of Alverost's creations.
"Top floor. We're moving down from there." I fly ahead of Hestia and Aurelia, who nod in understanding and follow me. Last time, I didn't move around much inside the pyramid and traveled outside instead. Tokomaha will be able to navigate the place better because she used her clones to overrun it back then.
Keeping my eyes peeled for attacks from below, I land on the top terrace of the pyramid. The doors leading into the monarch's chambers are closed but not locked. Pushing them open, I find that it has been redecorated since the God King last lived here. It's far less lavish, and all the excessive gold decorations are gone.
Maybe Mereana became the new queen? She's a pretty frugal person, which would explain the change in the furnishing. But the room is empty, so I immediately move toward the door. That's when Flann suddenly appears right before me out of a vortex in space. I nearly run into her but can sidestep in time.
"Can't you fly normally?" I ask with a frown. Then I shake my head when I remember that we have a time limit. The moon isn't visible in the sky from this side of the globe, so I'll have to rely on my unreliable sense of time.
"I cannot." Flann replies earnestly. I somehow already suspected that, although it's strange for her not to know how to fly when her father can.
"Can you tell me Asoko's exact position? We can't waste time searching." I change the topic while glancing at Aurelia. She understands my hint and turns to Tokomaha.
"Split up and search for Kouratua." The golden girl speaks in a commanding tone, not at all sounding like a person asking for a favor. But the little goddess knows not to argue under the current circumstances. She puts a hand on the floor, and among swirling dust, perfect clones of her rise to their feet. They leave behind a small indentation on the rocks; it seems that's what they were created with.
Without a word, they run toward the door without getting into each other's ways and spill out into the corridor. Meanwhile, Tokomaha creates a second batch, and then a third. With this, over fifty of her clones begin to search the pyramid for the God of Gold, with more on their way.
"She is inside this pyramid." Opening her eyes after searching for a moment, Flann answers my earlier question. I suspected as much.
"I can search for her too." Tokomaha remarks casually while creating her fifth batch. Before I can answer, she raises her hand to create the sixth, when she stops short of touching the ground. Her expression suggests that something happened to her clones, with which she's mentally connected. "There's a new threat."
"What is it?" I ask while mentally preparing myself. Surely, there are all kinds of devils, so some may be stronger than the little goddess. I'm not especially concerned since Aurelia and I can deal with those instead.
"The big man from Zohigal." But Tokomaha's answer has me stunned. It's Oinos, the Walker of the Wild, who stands at the apex of Alverost's creations. I was able to draw a trickle of blood from him by using all of my mass to create an organic pile bunker. He didn't fight me seriously back then and played with me, so I can't even fathom his true power.
A part of me wishes Mataku were here to deal with him. I'm sure he could beat him, though having them fight each other to the death doesn't sound too bad either. But I doubt the Primordial Terror will show himself until our meeting on the moon. So I have to be the one to face this existence that could be a god even without the Imagination Engine.
"Can you teleport during movement?" I ask Flann just in case, although I doubt it. Unlike her father, her ability to teleport is much more limited.
"Only slow movements." She replies, then her eyes widen slightly in realization. "If you hold him still for a bit, I can bring you anywhere you want."
"The sun?" It's only a half-serious question. I'll most likely die before he does if we're sent there. Flann shakes her head without recognizing that it was a joke, and I sigh. "Then how about the dark side of the moon?"
"I can do that." Nodding in assent, she confirms my choice. I can direct Oinos toward Chaos-Juzual or Mataku then and complicate the situation for either party. After all, those two are against everybody else, which includes the Old Humans. The Wanderer of the Wild will have no choice but to fight them as well.
"I found Kouratua in the throne room. But there's a lot of opposition. I'm losing bodies." Tokomaha suddenly states, an irritated expression on her face. "And I've lost sight of the big man."
Aurelia wordlessly runs toward the door. She seems quite attached to the God of Gold, courtesy of their similar characteristics. I exchange a glance with Kamii and Hestia, then follow after the golden girl.
"Converge on the throne room." In the voice of a commander, I relay the order for everybody, but especially the little goddess. "Where was Oinos last?"
"Broke the front gate and all my bodies there. I don't know where he went after." I hear from behind me, the voice sounding more peeved than alarmed. Tokomaha's clones are quite a bit weaker than the original, but I have no doubts that Oinos could break her real body with a single punch as well.
The corridors are empty except for the clones standing guard along our path. They leave their posts when we pass, and follow us, causing our numbers to swell as we make our way downstairs.
Eventually, we come upon a hall filled with dead soldiers strewn across the ground. Scorch marks from a rapid-fire weapon litter the pillars and walls, and beams have cut molten streaks into the stone in some places. A few dead devils can be seen with countless arrows in their bodies or with spears stuck in their eyes and open mouths, but the difference in numbers tells me that regular humans stand no chance against them.
This truly is a repeat of the sneak attack on my mother.
Taking in the scene with a glance, I direct my eyes at Aurelia's incredibly long golden hair swaying before me as she continues down the hall. Seeing that these devils can be killed with conventional weapons is giving her hope that Kouratua is alright. His abilities are virtually the same as hers, so he should be able to defend himself against these without much trouble.
Of course, that's only true if there are no variations in the devils. I'm sure versions with more resilient bodies, higher intelligence, and possibly even access to the Imagination Engine exist among this invasion force.
We make it down to the floor connected with the first terrace from the ground level, where the throne room is also located. Here, three dozen of Tokomaha's clones are pushing against a front of armored devils wielding swords and spears. It seems that not all of Alverost's forces are equipped with guns and beam weapons.
But I can tell that these are a different breed. Their bodies are covered in brutish black steel armor. Those who swing serrated swords also have tower shields protecting their bodies, while others wield two-handed halberds and axes that could cleave regular humans in two.
The clones, who were able to easily overcome human opposition during the Battle of Kairaki back then, are having a hard time even bringing one of these towering warriors down.
"Out of the way." Aurelia commands with a voice that echoes through the hallway. In the next moment, she swings an arm, and a blade of liquid gold cuts through Tokomaha clones and armored devils alike. She didn't even stop to consider that those are her allies, but knowing that they aren't alive is what led to her disregarding their existence.
"You could have warned me." The little goddess complains with a pout. It's not that clones getting killed hurts her, but it took some time to create them. And losing them to friendly fire feels like a waste.
Aurelia doesn't even seem to hear it, as she continues to walk without stopping, not even deigning to look at the remains of the armored devils. When I pass them a moment later, I find that they're more human-looking under their armor than those we've seen so far. Aside from hairless red skin, they have mostly human faces - although they sport sharp teeth and pupil-less eyes.
Soon, we come upon the massive bronze door to the throne room. Last time, I blasted it open with a plasma beam because it showed a relief of the God King making gods bow to him. This time, it has been broken down already, with countless corpses of both humans and devils littering the ground. The sound of fighting can be heard from within.
As we reach the doorway, I find the room teeming with devils of all kinds, embroiled in a melee with human soldiers and minor gods of Adanak. One towering devil with red skin and goat-like horns is looming over the God of Gold on the ground. His body is dented in many places, as he seems to have lost the concentration necessary to keep his physical form intact. He's using his bare hands to hold back the massive cleaver aimed at his neck.
Mereana is standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the throne platform. Her silver armor is covered in blood, as she fights off a horde of devils trying to climb up. Two women and five men are standing with her, wielding swords and spears to defend the throne. On it sits a shivering young woman, accompanied by three archers and a man in azure armor. That must be the new ruler of Adanak and the members of her royal guard.
But we're on time. Kouratua and Mereana are still alive, and the new queen hasn't been killed yet.
Without needing a signal, everybody springs into action at the same time. Aurelia points a hand at the ground and transmutes a multitude of golden weapons. Kamii charges forward, joined by Tokomaha and her clones. Hestia flies into the air and conjures an array of spirit spears through the Imagination Engine. I transform into my real appearance and let out a roar that causes the devils to stop in their tracks.
In the next moment, two giant hands break through the floor below me and grab my ankles. Then I'm pulled down, out of the throne room.
