Un’hana stared at the report she held in her elegant hands. There was no need to read it, she had memorized the contents hours ago after the first glance. Three of her cities had fallen into total chaos following a coordinated uprising of the Unpure servant class.
The mortals had employed devious methods to inflict maximum carnage among the Pure. A poison with unprecedented properties was served at a massive banquet, harmless to the mortal tasters but able to kill any with divine ancestry in mere minutes. Courtesans were stabbing the throats of their masters as they slept with enchanted spikes able to pierce through the normally impervious demi-gods’ skin. Those spikes were also coated in that same wicked poison. Fear was gripping her domain, and calls for a full purge of every Unpure being were rising rapidly.
Luckily, the machine god Ahura-Guru had quickly responded, lending her a huge number of his constructs to quell the chaos. Those golems of his were truly impervious to toxins of any kind, and nearly rivaled the combat capability of the lower echelons of the Pure. Beyond that, they numbered in the tens of thousands.
The goddess of water and air frowned intensely, her mind processing faster than any mortal could imagine. None of it made sense. No organic or natural mineral poison could affect any Pure being to her expansive knowledge. Beyond that, every Pure citizen in her domain was able to use cleansing magic innately. She concluded that a higher power was behind the uprising, but whom? She immediately discarded Ogrun as a suspect. He was a buffoon, certainly. However, he was also honorable and would never go such a roundabout way to pick a fight with her.
She cycled through the list of suspects in her mind, and a moment later her eyes popped open wider. A growing realization was developing in the pit of her stomach when her head butler announced himself at the door to her spacious office. He was perfect in figure like most Pure, and among the most skilled fighters in the Empire. His clothes were immaculate. The creases in his black slacks were sharp enough to cut a steak, and he wore a tightly buttoned dark blue silk vest over a pristine white collared shirt. His facial features were sharp enough to appear crystalline, and his dark mustache was robust and curled up at the corners. Like the other ladies of the palace, Un’hana had been a little dismayed to learn the man’s preferences didn’t include women.
“The sample you requested, my lady.” He reached out with a white gloved hand that held a glass vial containing dark red blood. “Blood from one of the victims of the Banquet.”
She nodded and with a beckoning gesture, the vial left the man’s hand and floated to her own. She had already thoroughly tested samples of the food and wine served, and found them to be clean. A thought sent her Soul Energy into the vial, and gave her mind a clear picture. She resisted the sudden urge to shatter the vial in her fist, and gritted her teeth instead. Her stoic butler took a long elegant step backward, recognizing the sudden mask of fury on the goddess’ face.
In the blood sample, tiny things invisible to the naked eye were hard at work. They used the traces of iron and rich Soul Energy of the Pure blood to create copies of themselves. The design of the microscopic constructs was consistent with only one being. These were unmistakably built by Ahura-Guru, the god she had so carelessly invited into the most vulnerable parts of her domain in her reckless urgency to quell the Unpure uprising.
Her rage cooled as rapidly as it formed, turning as cold and deep as the oceans she ruled.
“Get word to every single myrmidon and council member. The machine god has betrayed us, the constructs sent to aid us are enemy forces.”
The butler turned on his heel and swiftly made to leave. After a single step toward the door, a strange hexagonal pattern suddenly formed, floating in the air behind him. It looked like a honeycomb formed of lines of energy, and it steamed violently as the man’s blood evaporated away in a flash. It was in that moment that her most trusted and competent subordinate simply fell apart into a gruesome pile of hexagonal pieces.
“Unfortunate.” The unnatural voice was comprised of many synthetic tones, all at once harmonious and unsettling. “I’m afraid my automated defense matrix perceived him as a threat. It’s a compliment in a way.”
Her enemy revealed himself then, stepping through a plane of faintly shimmering air. Ahura-Guru’s silver metallic body was a masterpiece mosaic of artifice and magic. Tiny, runed panels shifted with every movement as millions of tiny mechanisms and gears operated with perfect synchronicity.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
“Why?” Un’hana’s voice was cold and angry, but not hurt. She had buried enough traitors to fill a lake in her very long life, and one more would hardly leave a scar.
“Logic, of course.” The mechanical being replied casually. “Your resources are being used inefficiently. I need that big smitten crab of yours to help wreck this world enough to trigger our dear mother’s involvement. Once we kill her, the dimensional locks will break and we can go home. You see Un’hana, I just really miss my things. So be a good girl, get captured, and we’ll be home before you know it.”
“Your mind must have finally succumbed to rust.” Un’hana smiled grimly as her eyes began to glow, and her body began to levitate. “You’ve forgotten something very basic here. I am much stronger than you.” The glass walls and ceiling of the chamber shattered and were sucked up into the now violently churning sky.
Billions of drops of water slashed through the air, empowered by the water goddess to be razor sharp. Ahura’s body was riddled with holes in the blink of an eye, and he collapsed in a sparking heap next to the butler’s still steaming remains. Un’hana stared derisively at the destroyed body, how could such an intelligent being underestimate her so badly?
“Indeed.” Ahura’s voice sounded from her right, causing her to leap back and turn at the ready.
“No…” Un’hana voiced her denial weakly. “This can’t be.”
She now faced thousands of Ahuras, identical to the one she had just destroyed. What bothered her still more was what she sensed mingled into the bodies of the god’s many duplicates. Traces of agony, confusion, and despair reached out from the spirits within those artificial tombs.
“My people… that poison wasn’t killing them.” Her eyes widened in horror. “It was turning them into… you.”
“For none us could ever be so cruel...” Ahura voiced from the single body at the front of the endless legion before all of the duplicates voiced in a perfect choir to finish. “…As ALL of us.”
Un’hana was aghast, but far from defeated. Her teeth flashed in a snarl as she voiced an incantation in the primordial language of magic, no longer caring about collateral damage.
The air itself began to vibrate, sympathetic to the raging emotions of the goddess. The seas all around her island capital surged with erratic swells thousands of feet high.
Ice crystals formed from nothingness as Un’hana ripped the ambient energy from the rampaging elements around her. Greater elemental spirits of water and air cried out in voices of typhoons and thunderclaps. She would make this entire region disappear and rebuild it from scratch if she must.
“Vanish, Ahura.” She growled as the power built to a terrifying crescendo.
“What a beautiful spell.” A new voice broke in as she released the cataclysmic energy. “It’s a shame I can’t watch its effects play out.”
Un’hana watched with growing disbelief as the rampaging energy was unraveled to its most basic components, and devoured by the man whom had just appeared in front of her. Shocked though she was, Un’hana didn’t hesitate. She lashed out at the new enemy with a blade of water and rapidly vibrating air.
The blade was caught and dissipated by yet another newcomer, and Un’hana finally felt true despair. A one winged spirit, a dryad of unmistakable identity had intercepted her attack. Her heart ached for the spirit, a being she held deep reverence for. She wasn’t surprised when the spirit’s counterpart revealed itself next. The twin spirits were inseparable after all. She could sense their feelings. Rage and shame at their own forced actions hit Un’hana like a gut punch from her moronic ex-husband. That thought inspired another unwelcome feeling. She actually wished the big jerk was here.
“What wicked time and place is this? To see such innocent little spirits twisted by the machinations of selfish bastards like these.” A tear streaked down her cheek, at the senseless loss of so very much life and at the perversion of the sacred for such a wretched purpose.
“Spoken like one that sees their world through the eye of a needle.” The man that had absorbed her magic talked down to her.
“I see much through this needle’s eye. Kutris the Worm, I presume?” The goddess spat back. “You will soon fall into a world of agony beyond what even a goddess like me can fathom.”
“You put a great deal of your Soul Energy into that curse, my fair lady.” Kutris rubbed his index finger and his thumb together as though feeling the air. “You did indeed cause my fate to distort a bit.” He smiled brightly, then continued. “But you know what they say. When casting your curse, remember to dig two graves.”
Un’hana grimly began to gather more energy, ready to fight to the bitter end. She manifested twin blades of water and air, only for them to fizzle away as the great dryads begin to sing a mournful yet gentle song. She felt a sudden heaviness in her mind, and her eyelids. As a goddess, the compulsion to sleep was an alien feeling. She fought valiantly, but she didn’t have the strength. Nearly all of her worshipers were dead, all but a few scattered to the wind.
As her consciousness drifted away, an image of a young girl appeared for a brief, clear moment. She was a prodigy, not even her direct Pure descendants had resonated with her divine energy so well as the Unpure girl known as Trasana. Un’hana focused on the thin and rapidly shrinking thread of energy linking her to the wayward high priestess.
“In my own name…” She struggled to whisper. “Un’hana beloved by the Water and Air.” She took a final deep breath. “I bequeath the title of Saint Myrmidon, and my remaining power.” Agony followed by emptiness washed over her as the last vestiges of her great power flooded through the soul corridor between her and her last hope.
“Stop her!” Ahura’s legion of voices shrieked as Un’hana completed her spell and collapsed unconscious.
“I cannot.” Kutris lamented, looking at the thread of energy insulated by a magic power that far exceeded his own. “Ariel has intervened.”
“I see.” Ahura’s voice grew optimistic. “That must have cost mother dearest a great deal of power. A victory in itself.”
“Will it affect negotiations with Un’kuthuku?” Kutris asked.
“No.” Ahura said with certainty. “The crab will do anything to ensure her safety, even without her divine power.”
“Good. Seems like we just have a regular mortal prisoner. Treat her like a delicate vase.” Kutris smirked. “Now, shall we move on to our next phase?”
“Indeed.” The leading Ahura tilted its silvery mask back as if in thought. “The constructs I sent on that oaf’s clothing have successfully infested the base, though they remain cautious. The being running the show is a very sharp one. They have confirmed the presence of Fenrir, however.”
“Their leader is trapped within my realm, and two of their strongest have been eliminated. It’s finally time to see what this so called ‘EDEN’ is really made of.” Kutris smiled in anticipation as he declared war.