LII.
The Verdant City – Outskirts
Xu stared off into the veiling fog of the algae marshes. He couldn’t hear the footsteps of the legion, but he could see them reflected in the surrounding puddles as recurring rings. They were close now, if out of sight. He looked away, turning his gaze upward to the sky. It was bright blue – a good day. His gaze fell, lowering to the legion of his own – four thousand Synbio soldiers at his back. The Tevat’s equipment had been generations beyond the retrofitted de-extinction lab of Site-B. Even with what limited time they had had they had been able to make so many. But would it be enough? If only they had had more time! If only that fool hadn’t ruined everything.
Vagari’s meddling had cost them more than just precious time; he had cost them their upper hand, and a dear ally in the weħǵhekw Tohu – whose psionics had been key in their reverse-engineering of the angelic technology. Now, here they were, a hundred years early, relying on someone two hundred years late. Xu still couldn’t believe Tehom had successfully swayed Vagari to join them. Probably offered him Xu’s life in exchange. That sounded like a promise Tehom wouldn’t hesitate to make. If what Tehom said about Vagari was true, that he hosted the undying soul of Nintu, well, it would be a promise well worth seeing through.
It didn’t matter in the long run. Not so long as the world was saved in the end. One life was well worth the price – even if it’s his own. Xu had no grand ideas of surviving the day. He remembered keenly what they had done to Mars in the years past, how they had pretty much glassed the whole planet. There were probably survivors, but they would never rebuild, never again seek the stars and truly live. They would only ever survive, like rats in the refuse.
Fate had taken a weird twist; he thought as he pulled himself up onto the side of an alabaster clad hovercraft beside him. At one point he had billions of dead to his name, but it was the death of one mutant girl that would probably kill him – the straw that broke the camel’s back. He was sure it was coming, as sure as he regretted nothing. Tough calls had to be made, and being Tehom’s enforcer, he was always the one to make them. It wasn’t personal – not really. They just chose to read the wrong book.
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“Behold, the hope of him is in vain…” Vagari had said, quoting Job, the first time they had laid witness to the Leviathan. It only felt fitting that he added more to the utterance, saying as they watched it lumber past, “None is so fierce that dare stir him up…” The world shook with each lurching step of the impossibly immense creature as it dragged itself through the gorges and canyons it had carved throughout the city with its bulk. They stared up in awe and wonder from the top of a skyscraper, still well below the creature’s drooping shoulders and cetacean head.
The Leviathan was a massive knot of towering flesh not too dissimilar to BP or her less attractive counterpart, the Amalgamation. It bared none of her human aspects, being not much more than a mouth and tail propelled forward on two massive stumpy legs. Its face reminded Vagari of a blue-whale, but one whose mouth was full of fangs instead of baleen. Every inch of it was covered in calloused pocked flesh, scarred by the environment and surrounding buildings. Vagari turned away, leaning down to give BP a quick peck on the forehead. “Good luck,” He said just as quickly before heading to the towers edge. “You too,” BP replied as he jumped. “Once more unto the breach…”
Vagari’s wings unfurled, beating hard against the storming winds that perpetually surrounded the Leviathan’s bulk. Tehom had been right about their vantage point, he could easily see the army they had somehow scraped together. There were hundreds of them, it looked like, a whole legion, all grouped together in units and squads like a real army. Vagari wondered where Tehom had been stashing them all. He might not have succeeded in freeing the Godhead if the army had remained on the ship. There had to be a reason she left it so undefended if she had the numbers to mount such an offense. Vagari eyed her suspiciously over his shoulder for a moment. He didn’t want to leave her alone with BP, but he had a part to play, and it was time to play it. Vagari jumped, diving off the roof’s edge into the open sky below.
Catching the wind, he soared down to break bread with the despicable soul that was the army’s head – Xu and his parasite, the Udug. As Vagari glided down to his destination, he couldn’t help but notice how unequipped the synbio soldiers were. Only a handful of them wore the same heavy plated armor he had seen before, the powerful exoskeletons that doubled the wearers strength and durability. Most wore something of a lighter make, not the alabaster plate of angel design, but armor of printed steel. It appeared that Xu hadn’t had the time to outfit his army with the more advanced gear. Though their armor was lacking, something they didn’t lack was ground vehicles. There were several tanks in their arsenal, large hovercrafts clad in alabaster metal. It was impressive what the Tevat could pump out in the time they had had it in their control. Vagari only hoped that the Godhead hadn’t used it as efficiently.
Vagari kicked up a cloud of dust as he struck the ground, landing upon the now ancient highway on all fours. He stood to his full height and stared down the way, at the army of homunculi filling the algae marsh further down. They awaited him, his word, their command – him, the human Eddy Valentino; him, the weħǵhekw Abaddon; him, the shassuru Nintu; him, the wanderer Vagari. To everyone he seemed to be a different soul behind his face. He saw who he was, his mind, Eddy Valentino. Tehom saw his form, the body of Abaddon. Who saw Nintu, he wondered, the soul of her? Only one person saw him for who he was now, Vagari.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Vagari turned his gaze back to the building, to the colossal being lurching behind it, to the miniscule one upon its roof – to BP. She alone saw him for who he really was. He vowed to never make the mistakes of his predecessors – the mistake of apathy. Nintu had chosen war over the love of her children. Eddy Valentino chose the pursuit of knowledge over everything else. Vagari said to himself the words he couldn’t say on the rooftop: “I love you… Be safe.”
He wanted nothing more than to spirit BP away to somewhere safe, some place far from all the misery and harm the wretched world had to offer. All he wanted to do was let the world die if only to give her one more day of safety – but he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. She would hate him for it, hate him for not staying in the fight, hate him for stealing her away when she had the chance to make a difference, hate him for putting her above all else in the world. Instead, he would live up to her love, just as she had lived up to his a thousand times over. They would stay, they would fight, and maybe they would die. But, in the end, Vagari would die knowing that he had lived up to her love, that he was the man she thought he was – a good man.
Vagari took flight again, launching off into the marsh to meet up with the man he had sworn to see die screaming, to break bread, to make amends in a way to reach their mutual goal. He had promised Tehom not to kill Xu, to cooperate with him at very least until the threat was ended, but he had sworn nothing about keeping him alive. The day was still young, Vagari thought vengefully, and perhaps it need not be by his hand.
Xu was found at the rear of the vanguard as it stretched out into the bog beyond. That was exactly where Vagari had imagined he would be – leading from the rear – but what he hadn’t pictured, was the man waving cheerily overhead. “Hoy there!” Xu hollered up to him from the back of one of the alabaster hovercrafts – a large tank with a railed flatbed. Xu sat propped up on one elbow, waving grandly. “Fancy meeting you here!”
Vagari landed near the tank with a light thud, kicking up a small cloud of dust as his wings reverted to their compact cylinder form. For the longest moment, he just stared, trying to figure out how to respond. A large part of him wanted to reply with a word of power – to just burn him to bone and cinders, a fitting and just end. But he would keep his promise – keep the stance of neutrality until all was over. Vagari stood up to his full height and glared down at the man he once referred to as ‘the Tall-Man’. He looked small now, shrunken and weak. Pathetic. “What’s our next move, Xu?” Vagari asked curtly.
“All business, are we?” Xu questioned with a crooked half-smile. “And here I was hoping, since we’re on the same team now, to have a heart to heart before we face our untimely end.”
“Is that a lack of confidence I hear, or cowardness,” Vagari pointed out sharply, not that he was any more confident in Tehom’s plan. “Besides, what’s there to talk about?”
“Quite a bit, in all honesty,” Xu answered, his little smile falling dead from his face. “If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m one of the original First-Seeds, the crew of the Tevat. I’ve seen firsthand what the Tevat can do. Mars used to be a hub, a beacon for humanity, a testament to their survival – until we came.”
“Cool, so we’re screwed,” Vagari said with a roll of his eyes.
“No – it’s highly improbable for the Tevat to fire its main cannon within the atmosphere,” Xu said with a denying wave of his hand. “Unlikely, but not impossible.” Xu paused as if trying to find the right words to say, or how to find the right way to breach a subject. “Do you know why I knew your name? Why I had to be sure it was you – Edward Valentino?”
“Tehom was in my head the day before,” Vagari tossed out. “Color me surprised she told you my name.”
“Maybe, maybe,” Xu said, scratching his chin idlily, “but we both know that Tehom doesn’t give information unless she has to. She hordes secrets like a dragon does gold. And what upper hand would it have given me?”
“Fine, I’ll bite,” Vagari said, unsure if he really wanted to know or not. He sighed through his nose and slid a hand over his chin, sorely missing the beard that no longer grew. “We’ll talk…” Vagari began with a few reaffirming nods. “But first there’s a few things I want to ask you as well.”
“Oh lovely,” Xu said, sounding actually happy. He slapped the bed invitingly a few times before saying, “Hop in! We’ll make a day of it!”
Vagari almost immediately regretted offering a line of dialogue. However, he wanted to ask about the dreams – see which were real, and which were fantasies of the abyss. Some small part of him felt that they were more than that, more than ethereal echoes attached to his mind. They felt like memories, but whose? Vagari begrudgingly climbed into the back of the vehicle. “Alright, there we go. Get comfortable,” Xu said with a smirk. He banged a few times on the back of the cab to set the vehicle in motion. “You first.”
“Have you heard about my dive into the Abzu?” Vagari asked. Xu nodded surely whilst saying, “I have. Three months trapped in a dreamscape – fwoo! And all for what? The given name of an outsider? Ti’amat was the mother of monsters, you know? In Sumerian myth.”
“You think it lied?” Vagari asked genuinely, a chill inching up his spine at the remembrance. “Think it was all for nothing, like Tehom?”
“Tehom wants to believe that,” Xu said with a huff. “Would you want to believe that there’s just something out there powerful enough to kill your god?” Xu shifted in his seat to prop up his head on his fist. “Tehom is old and being old she believes there’s nothing new in the universe. She’s seen all there is to see, in this world and the next – or so she’d have you believe.”
“So, you believe this creature is out there,” Vagari pressed, “that it killed Nintu?”
Xu offered a hapless shrug as an answer, before saying, “That can’t be the question on your mind – whether or not I believe you.” No, it wasn’t. Vagari sighed and then said, “Afterward, I keep seeing… visions.”
“Not uncommon,” Xu interjected in a very doctorly manner, as if they were simply talking about the side effects of the flu. “It’s not rare to see after effect, ghosts, shadows, voices – the lot.”
“That’s what Tehom says, but this is different,” Vagari insisted. “These are memories – full and engrossing. I see you…”
“Me?” uttered Xu in response.
“You, talking to someone…” Vagari continued. “You’re younger and… I think it’s aboard the Tevat.”
Xu stared at him searchingly for a long quiet moment. “BP 2-8-57 is the one who pulled you out, wasn’t it?”
“She was, yes,” Vagari answered, anger leeching into his voice.
“And she was tethered to you for three whole months,” he continued, “wasn’t she?”
“Are you saying these are BP’s memories?” Vagari asked with knit eyebrows. “How is that possible she has memories of you aboard the Tevat?”
“It isn’t, they aren’t her memories,” Xu said flatly. “They’re Ecclesia’s.”
“Ecclesia?” Vagari echoed, the name feeling weighty on his mind. “That was my mother’s name…”
“I know,” said Xu with another huff, “she was named after her grandmother after all.”