The g’athu didn’t look up or move at all as the rulers and the four companions took the stage. The area in front of the stage was crowded with reporters taking pictures and filming. The rest of the auditorium was filled with seated people and security.
The g’athu gave Hubaba a slight nod and began to speak. John noticed the tentacles drooping from its face sway as it did. He heard a low horn-like noise, and a voice – deep and distant and rattled, somewhat hollow – sounded in his mind as the NCS gave a voice to the creature. “Come then, let us sign and be done with this.”
John hesitated a second before saying, “One moment. Please tell me what will happen to the people of this world if I sign the contract.”
The g’athu slowly turned its head towards John. “There will be a price to pay if I am addressed again without recognition of my higher tier. Understood?”
John felt as if the g’athu looked into his soul and he hesitated again before replying, “Yes, Bronze.”
“The magals will be treated as magals. I will spare the few that I must. Other than those I made this agreement with, their families, those that truly become Forsaken, you few of the ptagmog, all else will be slaughtered.”
A loud murmur sounded throughout the auditorium. By the surprised look on the faces of the rulers, most of them were not privy to the full plan, or the specifics of it.
President Gillis nervously and loudly said, “Bronze, all we have to do to live is swear to the Forsaken, correct? If they just swear, they’ll be safe. And we’ll be under your protection – the protection of the g’athu. And you’ll help us with technology and integrating into this…the universe. Tell them. Tell them if they just swear, they won’t be killed.”
After a short pause the g’athu said, “I am given orders now? I salute your courage. Only a few will truly embrace being a Forsaken. Most will lie. Magals always lie, and that gladdens me.”
President Gillis fell to the ground with a loud thud, dead. Her corpse had blood leaking out of the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Some people jumped in surprise, and a low murmur, mostly subdued out of fright, went around the auditorium.
The head of the g’athu turned back towards John. He said, “Know this, Gold, Copper, and Wood of the ptagmog, if you stand in my way, I will kill you. Understood?”
John wasn’t surprised to hear Hubaba and Lilly say, “Yes, Bronze,” in unison. He nearly did himself. He had to force himself not to. He knew he should attack. He couldn’t. His mind raced to think of a suitable reply, something defiant. He kept coming up empty.
A pressure, one far different than the soul pressure from a cultivator unveiling, began to weigh down on John, and he began to sweat. The g’athu said, “I stay my hand only due to that which marks your soul. Answer the question I asked of you or die.”
John was nervous enough that nothing would leave his mouth. After only muttering softly for a short time he was finally able to force out some louder noises.
The g’athu continued to peer into John’s soul. After a moment, he angrily asked, “What?”
John tried to rally himself and attack. His hand wouldn’t move. He felt a tugging on his mind. He nervously accepted the tug, assuming it was Lilly. His vision started to shake. He lost his sight for a moment. When he got it back, he was in a world of complete darkness. The only thing other than the pitch black was the g’athu standing in front of him.
The words of the g’athu sounded in John’s head, “I would like nothing more than to hear your screams as I flay you alive. You’ve been marked by an entity I must respect so I must also tolerate you to a certain point. A point I have reached. I will not tolerate further disobedience.”
John’s mind started to warble as the g’athu penetrated further into it. “Since you have no idea what you face, I’ll clarify for you. Your world is doomed. The Divine you met earlier this day ensured that by bringing me here. He believes this world was tainted by blasphemy and should be purged. But the Eternal arrived looking to cultivate karma. Its idea was to ease this world into what it had been kept from by bringing in small amounts of low-level Forsaken. Its intentions were noble, proven by it spending so much to selflessly protect the young and mothers of the young.
“The Divine can’t overtly act against the Eternal, but the Eternal is an energy being. Their perspective, thinking, and understanding of reality and the Tree of Life are very different from beings like you. To the energy being, I am the same as my sisters and brother. I am not. No bargain or contract or restrictions on portals can contain me. I will conquer this universe. I will soon revel in slaughter in a way denied me for far too long. I am inevitable.”
The Butcher’s abyssally-black third-eye penetrated deep into John’s mind and showed him how inevitable he was.
John was granted many images of conquest and destruction, but the ones of torture made his mind recoil in fear. The g’athu’s mind was incomprehensibly sick and devised many terrible ways to torture, and extend the torture, no human mind could imagine or comprehend.
The g’athu turned his back to John, and such a disrespectful act stung what little pride he had left. “Even the poor tech I’ve made in this short time assures your world will fall to me. If you want to survive the fall of it, when I release your mind, you will immediately answer the question I posed to you in a normal, clear, and understandable manner just as the two others of the ptagmog have.”
John’s vision began to shake again. He was suddenly back on the stage, his wife back on his left side and Hubaba on his right. He said, “Understood, Bronze,” and was overcome with shame.
The shield in John’s hand felt heavy. I named it Defiance just a moment ago, he thought. He tried to turn the shame into anger. He wondered if the g’athu had the same sort of fear effect as the abnormal dark one he named Ridge-head. If so, it will end once I’m attacked.
“Where is the contract,” asked the g’athu. “Does the one I killed have it?”
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No one replied. “If the contract is not presented for me to sign in the next few moments, there will be no bargain. None will be spared.”
The auditorium was dead silent. John couldn’t understand why he feared a Bronze so much. He was certain it had to be a fear effect. He rejected that such could constrain him, and he fought through the fear. He remembered the memories Betrayal showed him of the mother attacking the soldiers, of the knight charging a company alone, of the prisoner spitting in the face of his captors. He was not less of a man than they were. His shame turned to determination, and his hand began to rise.
Forgetting all about manifestations, John could only focus on what he knew best, the rules he lived by for thousands of years, and he jumped at the g’athu while grabbing and unsheathing Fireblade.
The g’athu whipped its arms forward and three glowing cords extended from each of its tentacle-hands and lashed at John. The automatic essence-shield of his new armor lit up and protected him, but he was still knocked aside. He got back to his feet to see the g’athu blare out a horrendous noise. The tentacles of its face blew forward, exposing its mouth. It had no lower jaw – there was just a large hole the tentacles covered.
Blood splattered all over John and he looked to his companions. Everyone’s heads in the auditorium began to explode. Lilly covered her ears with her hands. Amber was visible and transforming into a bear, in a mad frenzy she burst through the wall next to the door they entered through, escaping the noise. Hubaba yelled out, “I can’t unbind his manifestations! He…he won’t let me cast!”
Six cords whipped at Hubaba. The demon imbued essence into his bracer, turning it into a shield that blocked most of the cords, but not all of them, and he fell to the ground, bleeding from the gouges in his flesh.
If Hubaba couldn’t get a manifestation off, John knew he had no chance of casting any, so he pointed his plasma ring at the g’athu as he got back on his feet and forced essence into it. He prayed nervously, hoping the ring had repaired itself and worked again. He let out a sigh of relief when a line of plasma discharged at the g’athu.
One of the six spider-legs attached to the back of the g’athu intercepted the discharge, but the line of plasma cut through the leg and hit the creature’s essence-shield.
As John charged the Butcher, the five-remaining spider-legs pointed at him and a thin beam of red light shot out of each one.
The essence-shield of John’s armor broke. Five red beams poked five pin-sized holes through Defiance and his lower chest as he infused his ring while continuing his charge towards the g’athu. His [Emergency Heal] didn’t activate. He wasn’t sure if that was good or not. He wasn’t sure if it was on cooldown.
Six cords of energy whipped at John. He jumped and spun to avoid them, catching some on his shield and sword, his body sliding over the others as he pumped essence into his ring. His orb-eye watched the five remaining spider legs cross over the blue light on his enemy’s chest to block the plasma discharge, and the plasma cut through all five legs.
The bright blue light on the Butcher’s chest then fired at John and he dove to avoid the small ball that flew at him. The ball nicked his leg as he threw Defiance at the monster. That nick was enough to cause John to freeze and crash to the ground, unable to move. Defiance was blocked by what was left of the spider-legs and clanked to the floor too.
The g’athu laughed and said, “Are you trying to use a compulsion on me? I expected more wisdom from one that previously reached the fourth Tree.” With his orb-eye, John saw Lilly’s eyes sparkling with the mind power. The g’athu screamed out his horrible noise again and Lilly collapsed with blood leaking from her eyes.
John tried to force himself up, but he still couldn’t move at all. A dark, swirling circle formed next to the g’athu and monster said, “I was hoping for a challenge. I’ll leave this portal open. If you three bring me the Natural as tribute, and kneel to me, I may forgive you.”
The g’athu entered the dark, swirling circle and disappeared. As John got the use of his limbs back, he heard Lilly cry out in pain, and he ran to her. Her eyes were bloody and closed. When he lifted her, her eyes opened and were completely red. He wiped her eyes and cheeks the best he could and smiled reassuringly at his wife.
Lilly tried smiling back and weakly croaked out, “I guess I’m not as immune to certain mind effects as I thought.”
John felt into his wife and worked on her with [Blood Heal] as best he could, and then did the same to Hubaba and himself.
Hubaba said, “He unbound my manifestations so easily. He rejected my attempts to unbind his so deftly it was like our tiers were reversed. I’m sorry I performed so poorly. I stood no chance.”
John handed Lilly to Hubaba and said, “Get her out of here.” Hubaba excelled at unbinding others and preventing his own manifestations from being unbound. If he couldn’t cast or unbind, he was of no use in a fight.
Lilly began to protest and Hubaba had to talk over her. “What will you do?”
John said, “I don’t know. Just get her out of here. Please.”
Hubaba took Lilly and indicated his acceptance with a head movement. John was certain Hubaba heard the fear in his voice.
As Lilly was carried out of the auditorium, she flailed her arms and cried out. “Adon! No! Please! Come! Adon!”
John looked at the dark, swirling circle and his heart spiked. He was filled with fear. He realized it was not the unnatural and artificial fear he felt with Ridge-head. It was just the normal and natural fear men felt when facing a monster they should run from, and it squeezed his heart and mind in its icy talons with a vice grip.
John had faced death more times than he could count even before he gained the power, and he always did so bravely and fearlessly. He attacked Sublime Sunshine when he knew it meant his death. He feared nothing but the cold-dark. He even attacked Betrayal knowing the cold-dark was his fate.
This is why my people put so much emphasis on controlling emotions, so I would not fail and falter as I am now. So I’d never become as shamefully unmanned as I have, thought John as he looked fearfully at the portal.
John forced his body to collect Defiance and walk towards the portal. He berated himself in many ways and called himself all sorts of names for being so cowardly. Nothing he did worked. Fear still gripped his heart, preventing him from entering. The fear would not leave, and his shame grew.
John’s eyes began to water. That caused him as much distress as the fear he felt. He never cried and he would not allow it now. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. He looked around the auditorium at all the dead humans. The people he swore to protect. He was too weak. Too weak by a long way. A Bronze filled him with fear. Through the portal would be Silvers and a Gold.
And death.
John wasn’t scared to die. Some part of him welcomed death. But there was dying and there was dying, and the Butcher promised a terrible death he did not want. He was scared of the Butcher, and scared to die the way he would if he entered the portal.
In the distance, John could still hear his wife screaming his name. He had someone again. He had something to live for. I don’t want to die this way, John thought. I don’t want to fight this fight.
Remembering his father and how ashamed the man would be of his cowardly son, he also remembered the old war cry of his tribe, ‘I am born for war.’ John repeated the war cry in his head. Doing so returned a little steel to his spine. He repeated it again in his head. And again, over and over. Then he said it out loud.
John cried out and jumped into the portal. He didn’t want to face the Butcher, but he couldn’t bear the shame of living as a coward. He remembered the promise he made after his last meeting with Betrayal, filled with shame then too. He couldn’t purge his heart and mind of the fear that gripped both, but he could at least not let it control him. He lived too long and suffered too much to die unmanned at the end. He would die fighting. At the least, he would die fighting.