On an isolated strip of highway, a convoy of 18-wheelers is driving straight into a misty glass pane. Each is bursting at the seams with food to fill the stores of the Arx Horatius. This inelegant method is a temporary solution to avoid the strain that a large gateway has on the local population. Once the population acclimates—and the world will acclimate—this method will be unnecessary.
“Hey, I didn’t just plan my own obsolescence with this did I?” asked Chen with a mouthful of grapes.
“Becoming obsolete is the best gift we can make for the next generation,” said Immortal.
“Maybe, but the next generation can wait. But I plan to enjoy a nice long life.”
“I’m sure they will appreciate your guidance. Khalid, you have it handled?” he asked through Little Birdie.
“I can do this all day, boss!”
“Thanks, Khalid, you’re one of our best. If the matter is handled, I have other things to attend to.”
The Immortal walked through ripples to arrive at The Sudd of South Sudan. The immortals around the village bowed to him, and so followed the Nuer who were being resettled here. An unnecessary gesture, laughed off as he pleaded to them to stand proud.
These immortals were the same Dinka insurgents that had terrorized Nuer villages in the region. At least what remained of them after their induction into the ranks of the new world army. Those who stubbornly held on to their old allegiances, prejudices, and indulgences were disposed of.
The same would be true for all the prisoners, criminals, and stateless combatants of the world. The ones that were infiltrated and supplanted by loyalists had already openly pledged their fealty during the war. With all resistance demonstrated to be futile, the rest of the criminal organizations capitulated and the nations happily emptied their prisons of their unwanted malcontents. Not all of them would become soldiers, but they would serve as they found their footing in their new life.
No longer in the shadows, the artisans who crafted the arms and armor of the immortals began to industrialize their production to meet the demands of the army. Soon, even the carefully rationed gargoyle armor would become commonplace. They would need such equipment for the tasks ahead of them.
On Earth, the immortals would enforce the ceasefire and neutralization of the world’s militaries. To bring lasting peace, the nations of the old world—the various prides that humanity divided itself by—would have to be dismantled. But such ingrained identities and feuds would take time to be worn away. For now, it would have to be enough to end all wars.
In Hell, the war has only just begun. While the daemon threat had been pacified by the deaths of the arch-daemons—and the continued existence of their slayer—the mindless monsters who were heedless of danger remained. The colonies of humans were beacons that would draw these monsters into hordes. Nothing less than constant vigilance would be able to stem the tide, but expanding and thriving would take more than that.
The seven planes could only be subjugated by the full sword of humanity. Only when Earth is united, and mankind’s daemons have been conquered, can we be privileged to say that we left a bright future for our children.
Letiche hung over the patio balcony, her gaze fixed on the sunset horizon. To see the sun fall to night, to feel the ocean breeze, were a few of the barest comforts so long denied to her. But this manor, and the basilica, would provide her with far more than the bare minimum. She will be the benchmark for humanity’s progress toward its future. With her growth, the path beyond the horizon will be laid out for the rest to follow.
A Little Birdie landed on Tejieue’s shoulder. The Nevada National Security Site has been taken hostage and they are demanding he comes alone.
“That’s a new one,” said Immortal through the bird.
“Who would do something like this now of all times?” asked Chen.
“Someone who thinks they can kill me, and wants to make sure they don’t miss.”
“Could someone really believe that after everything? What happened to everyone knowing who you are?”
“There are always more enemies, or, at least, plucky gangs willing to swing beyond their weight.”
“So this trap, you think you’ll die?”
“Of course not, this fight’s already over.”
“Well, try to have fun. You could use some relaxation.”
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Immortal stepped out of the portal onto dusty asphalt. The dry heat of the arid plain surrounding the site was already agitating his skin; truly, only the most cold-blooded could survive in these horrendous conditions. Wearing a full helmet and coat did not help.
The first order of business was to port out all of the hostages. The report never said what was preventing them from leaving, just that all attempts were stopped by an invisible force.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He attempted to scan the site which stretched out over a thousand square miles. Soul-search. X-ray vision. Echolocation. The problem wasn’t the distance but that a wall of interference jammed each of them. Electroreception. That one revealed the wall: An imperceptible electromagnetic barrier that blocked his magical extrasensory abilities from perceiving beyond it.
This must be the Hippo’s doing. That she felt the need to put up this, and that she could never come up with it on her own, was evidence that there were others with her. The who and the where were the parts being obfuscated.
Nearby were the hoists for the elevator shafts that led to the underground experimental complex. Within those underground tunnels, subcritical physics experiments are conducted: contained explosions to test nuclear capabilities without having to glass the desert. They shouldn’t come close to a real nuclear chain reaction, but with magic on the table, anything became possible. Flooding the cramped tunnels with nuclear hellfire is the only reason he could imagine for choosing this location, but few would be insane enough to try that.
If it came to it, then he could open portals into space to throw it away, but that not be an option after using portals on the hostages. He could also try absorbing the blast; it would hurt him directly, but it would be the only other way to prevent the damage from spilling out. it’s unlikely that whoever took this place hostage would know about the backlash, but an enemy should never be underestimated and all possibilities must be accounted for.
Just in case, he summoned some things that would lighten the load in front of him.
He sensed the surge of energy in the clouds before the crack of thunder could reach his ears. That extra second of warning was all the time he needed to form a proper response. From the clouds of a clear blue sky came purple lightning that struck squarely where he stood—only to have its own impact reflected against itself.
A second roar of thunder shook the dust off the asphalt as inverted lightning collapsed into an implosion of sparks and embers. GalvanGal was blown across the pavements, cracking it, in craters as she bounced, then in streaks as she dug into the ground to stop herself.
The impact may have been reflected onto her, but the shockwave still rippled through him. The flaw of an imperfect copy. There may be a way to mitigate the effect, but for now, they both needed to catch their breath.
“Taking hostages isn’t very heroic,” said Immortal.
“I think we’re both past the point of caring about heroics,” said GalvanGal, “this was the only way to get you where I wanted you. I’ll do what I must to win.”
“That’s the spirit, but it’s a bit late for that. The pantheon is finished, and all nations are adjusting to the new paradigm. There’s nothing left to be won.”
“Maybe. Maybe if I was an immortal I would know what winning is like, but I didn’t get an invitation. I wondered why that was.”
“You were the only possible roadblock in our path to victory. I needed something to test how effective my immortals really were, if only to show them what they would be up against in the future. Too bad you turned out to be a speed bump.”
“Oh wow, I guess it's the same for me then. No one else in the world can threaten me. Fighting you is the only way I can measure myself, and the only time I ever could feel victory is by beating you.”
“Come at me all you want then, this will end the same as every other time.”
The Hippo bolted right in his face, then whirled behind him. Emerald sparks combusted all over her as she swung, hitting only the smoke. Underneath her vision, an onyx lanced into her rib cage with prances biting into the rest of her body. From within, the venom from the last onyx blow was detonated to such agonizing effect that a scream was ripped from her throat, but even that was consumed by silence and darkness.
She collapsed to her hands and knees where she coughed uncontrollably. Even so, she still maintained the barrier. The onyx lightning is one of the few things that can pierce her sparking shimmy, but unlike the first time, the blowback from using it was like firing an anti-tank rifle from the hip. His arm did not quite break, but the venom coursing through his muscles made him wish he was numb.
He began to remove his coat when a streak of blue made him dash to the side. Streaker stopped only to grab ahold of the Hippo before the blurred away then crystallized into nothing. How he could survive in this inhospitable place wearing a parka was a mystery that would be solved at another time. What was more pressing was how he appeared and disappeared. They may have planned to wait until he used the onyx, but that would require them knowing about the backlash.
If they were going to block his sight and his magically enhanced senses, he would need another way to flush them out. In the middle of a desert, under a clear sky, Immortal cast forth a second storm that darkened the heavens to bring a flash flood that drenched the coarse soil to drown the burrowed rats. Considering the tunnels behind him, he silenced the unnatural clouds as he had what he needed: five of them. Whatever cloaking method they used was still sustained, but could not hide the water that washed over them nor the puddles that they stepped in. They recrystallized around him.
“Garrick! I see you’ve straightened out your issues. Todd, that explains some things. You two are the only guest stars I wasn’t expecting. Five against one isn’t very fair now, is it? Can you enjoy winning like this?”
“If you’re not fighting dirty, you’re not fighting. You taught me that.”
Hippo, Aaliyah, Kenny, Todd, and Garrick. Electricity, holy magic, time slow, fire, and… whatever those gauntlets strapped he strapped on are going to do. Ice probably. Quite the lineup nonetheless. If Garrick is standing, does that mean Aaliyah mastered the star-cross?
From the prances and rear back of her arm, Hippo was charging something. If it’s just a lightning strike, then it can be absorbed with the sleeve of the coat. Can’t lose track of whatever the other ones are up to.
Her arm lunged forth and lightning speared forth as foreseen. It struck his foresleeve in a harmless cloud of purple vapor and amethyst sparks. Was that really an attack? No! It was—
Spikes inside his rib cage bit into his lungs. Moisture drained from his flesh. His vision tessellated across the electromagnetic spectrum. A cacophony of noise from the chorus of the world deafened his hearing. His consciousness was submerged in an ocean of memories of the past, present, and future, of the living, the dead, and the inhuman.
His heart erupted an Onyx Zaouli that lashed out in all directions. Tendrils of black lightning hammered apart the asphalt and shook the earth.
Through the flashes of darkness, under the cloak of silence. GalvanGal grabbed Garrick and Todd while Streaker picked up Aaliyah. They all piled into the elevator to go down the shaft into the underground tunnels.