XXXVII.
Val stared down at the mutilated corpse propped up beside the med bay door. Despite the damage to it, it was hard to tell whether a creature did it or if it were caused by the same explosive mutation they had seen before, just to a deadly and finite extent. The door itself had been left ajar, stuck half-way between closing when the emergency power failed. The facility was effectively dead, despite the flashing warning light above them. A lack of power didn’t hinder them in the least, however. A source of it seemed to follow them wherever they went – some radiant ability of the goddess, Val speculated. Kneeling down, a closer inspection would suggest to Val that the base wasn’t quite as dead as it appeared. Footprints led away from medical – someone had escaped. Someone could still be alive in that desolate place, a someone who could give them answers perhaps. Val exhaled harshly as he stood. The hope that there was a human between them and the demon somehow made the horrid place feel a little less cold. He wished them good fortune as they left the more unfortunate soul behind.
Down the hall, the hope seemed in vain. The facility became shattered, with the roof of the hallway having been torn away, letting the ash and embers of the struggling flames beyond fill the passage. It was a welcome warmth, but a wholly unwelcome sight. The skylit hall was a mess of ruined concrete and exposed wiring. It appeared that the source of the power failure had been found: the power node connecting the facility to the Dyson Grid was what burned in that frigid wasteland. Val shielded his eyes as arcs of untamed electricity popped to life on their approach – Nintu’s radiance seemingly turned against them. The exposed wires lashed about, charring everything they touched like cracking whips of lightning. Val half-wondered if the explosion had been what burned the misfortunate thing they had found at the main gate, but it wouldn’t explain the acts of sabotage. “It would have been a more merciful death,” Nintu said, seemingly having read his mind. “Almost painless, I imagine… But I fear we’re not the first to reach this place – just the ones to clean up the mess.”
Nintu reached out an open palm. Clenching it into a fist the exposed conduits were entombed with explosive might, severing the wires with twists of metal and stone. It was probably safe to proceed at their leisure, but Val didn’t hesitate to scurry across past the goddess, lest he tempt a cruel fate. Nintu huffed, cocking an offended eyebrow that he’d doubt her competence in the matter. She sneered as she pushed past him, muttering something under her breath. “I – I’m sorry…?” Val mumbled as he followed her down that hall. There, they found more bodies, all contorted in fear and agony as they attempted to escape whatever had burned them. He found himself sticking far closer to the goddess than he meant to, getting another sharp look from her. “I’m sorry!”
“So you keep saying, loved one,” she said through her teeth, the being moniker especially pointed.
“So, did the demon not… do this?” He asked, pointing in the general direction of the hoarfrost encrusted bodies lining the walls. “You said someone got here before us?”
“I have my suspicions, yes,” she uttered as they stepped out of the hallway into a large chamber titled: Evocation Room. At the center was an immense reinforced door, reminiscent of a bank vault. It was dented and torn, pushed inward with such force it looked as if a bomb had gone off.
“But,” Nintu began, eying him over her bare shoulder for a moment before ducking into the opening, “why don’t we ask it ourselves? It lies within.”
Val stood at the doorway feeling as if he stood before the gaping mouth of Hell. He didn’t know what to expect, what to imagine of the creature that hid within. Would it be more harrowing than what he had already experienced so far? Could it be? Somehow he suspected it very well could be. The apprehension was nearly as bone-chilling as the creeping cold that began inching up his spine the further the goddess got ahead of him. At long last, he followed her in. The first thing he noticed was what had to be the Beacon at the center of the room. It was crushed, snapped in half, probably by the same force that had torn through the door, he imagined. Someone or something had gone through great lengths to destroy it. The second thing he noticed was the creature lurking in the darkness, pressed up against the back wall, or rather what was left of the creature.
It was a grotesque, amphibian-like thing, a nightmarish merging of a frog or a giant salamander with a hairless gorilla, but it was hard to tell if it had always looked like that. The demon was in a state one might call devitalized, with its guts spilled out across the floor and most of its body burned beyond any real notable features. Val had thought that he was becoming accustomed to seeing such things, but the sight of it proved him wrong, sending him dry heaving up against the wall. It wasn’t the monstrous thing itself that overturned his stomach, however, but the fact that it appeared to be still alive. “My eyes might be burned away, but I can smell you… if barely,” a harsh voice uttered in barely coherent Adamic. “Enki, is that you? I fulfilled our bhendhayl… We destroyed the Beacon, but it did not stop the Ħelalyos in the least… as you can see. Free me from this shell.”
“A gallu?” Nintu noted out loud, the surprise plain in her voice as she stared across at the defeated creature. She seemed stunned, genuinely shocked by it, or perhaps its words. “What do you mean?” she asked steely, shaking off the look of confusion with one of sternness. “Who is this ‘we’ you speak of, and why does that fetid name leave your lips?!”
“Great mother, is that you?!” the creature questioned, nearly toppling over at her resounding voice. “I… I had no choice… I was bound by the bhendhayl – the pact! But, the other…”
“What happened here, gallu…?” Nintu asked calmly, though there seemed to be a fire in her eyes, an anger. “The other, was it the Udug? Where is it? Does it yet live?!”
“Forgive me, Mother… I did not wish to betray you,” the demon uttered, practically sobbing. “But, it was betrayal either way… A wrongness has crept in, a Ħelalyos… Enki stole me from the Forge, gave rise to this body so I might destroy its… tether.” Replied the entity through spirts of bilious blood that steamed hotly upon the frozen floor. It was dying quickly, unable to hold out in its shattered body any longer, Val could see it in the goddess’s eyes as the anger turned to concern. “It… was a Weħghedh, a Living One even… It helped me… protect you… But, it couldn’t protect itself… It was lost. Stolen from HIM… The outsider, it found another way, another tether. Please, remake me, Mother… I only wished to… protect… you…”
“I will,” Nintu whispered softly as the creature fell silent, dead. “Sleep well, my child… return to the cradle of Kur and await your rebirth. You have made me proud.”
Val couldn’t help but feel relief at its passing, but the feeling was tinged with a certain sadness seeing how it affected his companion. He made his way to the ruined beacon and nudged it with his foot. “So, what now?” Val asked with an uncertainty in his voice suggesting that he might not want to know the answer. “Is that it? It’s broken and we saved the day? What exactly did this thing do – or, was supposed to do?” Nintu shot him a glare over her shoulder and hissed something foul under her breath. “I had almost forgotten how little you care for others,” she uttered harshly. “This gallu may have just been a thing, but it sacrificed all it was to stop…”
“To stop what?” Val exclaimed. “The beacon? I thought we needed to stop the Forge! But now we hear that so-and-so used it to create that thing to break this thing! You cannot say you’re any less confused than I am. You may be this all-powerful space goddess, but I can see it in your eyes that you don’t know a damned thing either.”
“Be SILENT!” Nintu snarled at him, sending him staggering backwards onto his rear. She rounded on him and for a brief second he thought the end was truly upon him. However, his suspicions had been true and, thankfully, she stayed her hand. Instead Nintu spat out a very human curse and kicked the base of the shattered beacon.
“So, what now…?” Val repeated softly, pushing himself up to his knees. He sighed deeply and stood up with a pained groan. “What’s our next step? Where do we even go from here?” She didn’t reply. “Alright, lets list off the changes here… If everything went right for once it just wouldn’t be another day at the office. So, where we’re at is… What we thought was happening and who we thought was doing it doesn’t seem to be the case… Correct so far?” Nintu offered him a glance so he continued, saying, “Right… so that just changes our focus then to who is – this ‘Outsider’ the demon mentioned. What is that? You have your suspicions already, I trust.”
“I do, but I will need to delve into the Abzu to be sure of it, I think,” Nintu admitted. “I’ve awoken in a strange time… It’s disorienting. I need my Watchers risen as soon as possible. That’s where we go next.”
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Val exhaled resignedly. “And I will be one of them, right?” He asked solemnly. “That’s my… punishment, for what I’ve done. Can… Can I ask you about it?” Nintu offered him an inquisitive glance and then turned to face him. She cocked her head and then nodded it, saying shortly, “You may.”
“I won’t be the same, right? I won’t be me?” he asked with a distant look in his eyes. “I… I don’t think I want to be. The more I think about it, the more I’ve come to that conclusion. I… I don’t regret what I did, not really. Not my methods, or even the outcome. I just keep flip-flopping between scared and excited. Not regret, not remorse. At some point in my life I lost my soul, so to speak… I don’t know if it’s really gone, I guess you would know, but that’s what it feels like introspectively. I guess what I’m saying is… Will that cross over?”
“No,” Nintu answered softly with a sympathetic look in her eyes, “it won’t, loved one. You are broken, but you will be reborn whole. Who you are now will be gone, but all your knowledge and memories will remain as new bricks in the fortress of my creation. It is not a true death, the best parts of you will survive. You will be redeemed.”
“Ha-ha, I’m scared, but…” Val began, tears trickling from his eyes, “I’m excited. I just wish I could see where all of this goes, you know? My greatest joy and my biggest sin…”
“Perhaps you shall,” Nintu offered kindly. “But we shall not see here. The Forge is no longer here… Someone has taken it. The power I felt died with the gallu. So, we must leave… and return to the Gate, as you called it.”
She waited for no more questions, not even for him to follow, but he did anyways, without fear or compulsion. They returned to the shattered hallway and stepped out into the snow and ash beyond, to where what Val quickly gathered was Neti waiting for them. “Hello again, Great Mother,” a bi-gendered voice announced joyously. It no longer was the fractured image projected from a central form, but instead took the shape of a large bio-mechanical arachnoid creature with a sharp pillar growing up from its back. “This one has just arrived as ordered, and I have brought you the Gate device, as you have requested. Were you successful in finding the human’s Forge facsimile?”
“No,” Nintu denied. “The power I felt… faded. Something very strange has happened here… There was a demon here that spoke of cooperating with Enki and a Living One against some kind of outside element. But, I will need my generals before I speculate further.”
“What is a Living One?” Val interrupted. “Sounds awfully biblical in any language.”
“Hasn’t impatience and curiosity cost you much already?” The goddess uttered before answering, saying, “How can I put this in a way you might understand… A Living One, Gweyħwos-Dheghom properly… It is a collective, a Weħghedh. It is you, all of you – as one. All the potential, all the minds and souls of your people in one singular form. You might call it an Egregore or a collective consciousness.”
“Well,” Val said astonishedly, “that’s a fascinating concept.”
“Agreed,” she offered lightly, “so I stole it. My Watchers are not too dissimilar – though vastly more regulated. Quality over quantity.”
“Heh – guess I should feel honored,” Val uttered with a bleakness to his voice.
Nintu gestured to the crab-like construct. Instantly it melted down into a flood of nanites the color of stone before quickly reforming into it’s previous column-like form with the obelisk at its back. “We must return now,” Nintu announced. “The others should have arrived by now – honored guests, like you…”
“Is… is that possible? Without the Forge, I mean?” Val asked, chewing his lip, half-hoping it wasn’t. “I thought the Shassuru needed the device to instill their will.”
“And here I thought you had come to terms with your punishment,” Nintu said with a dark chuckle. “The device makes it easier, yes, but a lack of it doesn’t make it impossible. It will simply take longer with a few extra steps.” She turned to the construct and nodded her horned head. “Neti, my friend, I expect to see you again shortly.”
“Of course, Great Mother. This one will make my way to your side as fast as I am able,” The A.I.-esque being announced warmly.
“Good,” the Goddess replied, glancing over to the thrall at her back. With the slightest twitch of her hand she compelled him to step forward to her side. “I will see you soon, my friend. SoPeth gwedh Hheme.”
“Wait, give me a mome-!” Val pleaded, but once more he found himself blinded and full of terror as he was thrown the immense distance back from whence they came. The disorientation and blindness didn’t last as long as last time, it seemed, but all the same the experience was nauseating and one he’d rather avoid in the future. The future… He laughed at the thought. There wouldn’t be a future for him, he reminded himself as the darkness broke way to the flickering white lights of the Gate Room. As his eyes rose from the floor and he wiped the spittle from his lips, Val quickly noticed that they weren’t alone, that there were twelve others waiting for them. They were human, but that offered no warmth to the cold scene before him. They stood frozen in place by some unseen force. Terror and confusion shone bright in their eyes as they darted left and right, from each other to the two people who had just appeared before them.
Most of them Val didn’t rightly recognize, but a few he did – namely Dr. Cain, seemingly back from the dead despite the gaping hole in her head, and a one Dr. Albertson, who had worked with him on transcribing Adamic. Seeing Dr. Albertson there brought him both a sense of relief and a feeling of suspicion. He had been one of the higher ups working at the Peter I facility. Val was glad he was alive, but how the man had managed to escape the massacre only brought doubt to his character. There was no debate, however, that they all were as guilty as he was to be standing there. “They… They all knew?” Val asked in disbelief, struggling to stand up. He shifted his gaze from the people he knew to the ones he didn’t. He was pretty sure he recognized a politician or two amongst them. “They all knew about my tampering and… just let it happen? They all had a hand in this?”
“Knew and encouraged,” Nintu answered with a sneer. “You were to be their scapegoat, their patsy. They all thought the work was moving too slow, too safely… They all wanted to have their names inscribed into history and would do anything to see it happen, just like you. And just like you, they will all pay for their sins,” Nintu said justly. “From the lowest rung, their little lamb,” she announced, sliding a hand over Val’s shoulder, “to the highest, the shepherds who greedily led their flock to slaughter… You will all be remade,” she bellowed for all to hear, “reforged to act out my will! You will serve me in body and soul. This is the price of your crimes against your fellowmen. But, rejoice! For in this soft death you will become so much more than you ever were in life, and your sins will be washed away with the weakness of your mortal forms. Now, lets begin.”
One by one she pushed them against the back wall and pressed herself into them. They could do nothing to resist, not even blink as she pushed her fingertips into their chests. Val could see the panic in their eyes, and the shock and pain of what she left behind as some new force overcame them. Each one began seizing and sweating profusely as if some great fever had bloomed in their bodies, a fire that was quickly burning its way to the surface. Their flesh began drooping, sagging as their tortured forms fused to the wall. They bubbled up and expanded, the sweat turning to steam as their insides melted down and the husks of who they were transformed into cocoons of mottled brown and green.
Val just watched in silent dread as each transformation took place, one by one, until all were done – all but him. He didn’t run. He already knew he couldn’t if he wanted to, and he didn’t want to. “I… I accept this,” he uttered, more to himself than to the God of Man standing now before him. “I know I deserve this, for what I did… I just… I don’t know what I was expecting, to be honest. Something more magical?” he said with a stuttered and weak laugh. Val took a deep breath as he backed away, setting himself up against the wall voluntarily. He wet his lips and swallowed hard. “Will… will it hurt?” Val asked, full well knowing the answer. The other’s eyes had sworn as much. “And… what,” he paused. “How will this go? What will happen?”
“It will, very much so,” Nintu answered, almost sympathetically. She didn’t seem to enjoy what she was about to do. “What will happen, loved one, is… I will install my design into you, what I need you to be. However, without my Forge, I cannot ease your journey. I cannot plot a path for you. It will be unguided. You will live and die, grow and evolve, again and again, over and over, until what you are and what you become aligns with the criteria of my designs.”
“Well,” Val said with a nervous chuckle, “that really does sound terrible… Can I ask you one thing, a favo-...”
The words faded from his lips as she slid a hand down his cheek. Nintu nodded kindly, knowing the question he was going to ask before he fully thought it through. Val smiled and she sunk her hand into his chest. He tried to scream as the pure agony exploded into him, into every fiber of his being, but found himself just as paralyzed as the others had been. Nintu backed away, and he felt that fever rise within him, a wildfire in his gut that quickly bloomed to envelope him, consuming him whole as his body became a shell around him. “Do not fear, loved one,” Nintu called to him, her voice as near as if she had whispered in his ear, “Do not fear for them, those you leave behind, or for the pain of their loss. I am kind, and my love for you all is deep. You will not remem-…!”
It fell just like in the ancient A.I.’s story, like a sword from the High Heavens, filling the room with blinding radiance, blocking the goddess from view. Within his shell Val closed his eyes, a blink that lasted but a moment, but when he opened them again the light was gone, replaced by Nintu’s face, pressed up against his cocoon. At first she wore a look of shock and confusion, but then one of solemn realization as she struggled to breathe through the blood pouring from between her lips. It was the color of molten gold, Val saw through the clouding window of his encompassing shell. Nintu whispered something, some distant thing as she died. He could feel her words more than hear them, feel their effect as she pressed herself up against him, into him. She was instilling more than her will now, but her very being. Val could feel her fear, feel GOD’s fear as she flowed into him. He welcomed her with open arms as her body merged with his own, as her flesh became his flesh, as his blood became her blood, and their will, their minds became one. In that instance, no longer were they the separation of mother and child, of slave and master, of GOD and mortal. Now, they were something new, something in between the mundane and the divine. Together they would take on the gauntlet of rebirth, and together they would be remade. And together the years passed.