I really should stop antagonizing Suamalie. She is several times my senior, and has more than enough capability of killing me multiple times over. But seeing her reactions is kind of fascinating to me. That, and I might have taken my payback a tad to far. The Abyss, once an ebbing and flowing mass of… dark something, hitting the wall in waves had suddenly turned into a focused storm surging forth along the bottom of the wall. From steadily attacking the defenses which were laid out by the soldiers along the bottom floor windows head on, to side swiping them instead. The focus of the Abyss was truly and firmly planted on Suamalie and me. I say it that way to make the present situation, while just as grim, far less lonely.
Nothing makes one see the world in stark contrasts as the thought of imminent and impending doom. The fact that I could hear it pounding against the walls didn’t help. At this point we had been running for a few minutes through the wall. occasionally throwing a ball of divine power through a window to make sure the Abyss follows us. I could tell things were getting worse for the wall as time went on. The walls were getting darker, and remnants of fighting could be seen strown throughout the wall the closer we got to ground level. About two levels up from the ground level, the troops were battered and the walls were splattered, but no one gave up the fight willingly.
Monsters howled and screeched as they tried to get in, while the people shouted and bailed together as they tried to keep the tides of the Abyss at bay. Tides, which thanks to Suamalie and myself passing by, were increasing even more than what they were previously. One of the people we were heading towards reared back with his weapon, a long axe looking weapon, and before they could thrust out at the oncoming attackers, their life was cut short as the black ooze of the Abyss lashed out and rapidly his body of any unnecessary thoughts. Or any thoughts in general for that matter, as their head disappeared into a shroud of black mist, leaving the out of balance body to fall backwards into our path of travel. Without skipping so much as a step, Suamalie reached out a grabbed the weapon of the recently deceased, planted a foot on the headless body, and in one swift motion stepped down with her foot and pulled the weapon free from the literal death grip the headless body still had on it, all without so much as slowing down.
“Eyes!!” I shout as we ran past the window. Not wanting to actually step on the recently deceased, I made a quick hop to clear him, and with a quick twist of my body, I repeated the similar motions of my initial flash ball that started this whole chase to begin with. Feeling the divinity flowing through my veins as it went from between my heart and stomach to my hand. The feeling of cold surrounded my hand as the divinity formed a ball before I threw it. It left the window almost as soon as I made contact with the ground on the other side of my jump. Pulling the strand of divinity, a bright light filled the surroundings once more, accompanied by the screams of pain of the Abyss and a few screams from the remaining soldiers. Taking a quick look over my shoulder, I saw that two soldiers were doubled over holding their eyes while the rest were looking in our direction a little confused and slightly dazed. Guess those two didn’t look at where the sound came from and rather followed the floating orb.
Looking forward once more, I was greeted with the blunt end of the axe Suamalie had… procured. “Take it, at least you’ll have something to swing if things get to that point.”
Reaching out to grab the weapon she offered, I slid my hand up the shaft to just before the axe head. Hearing the occasionally THUNK as the handle of the weapon swung up and down and hit the floor as I ran. “Thanks. Not quite what I’m used to, but at least it’s better than fighting shadows with my fists. Not that fighting that thing outside with this will be any better, but I feel better anyway. Aside from that, was there no other way of actually getting me something to fight with? I mean, while I am thankful, your acquisition of this thing was definitely on the brutal side of things. Like, stepping on a corpse? Isn’t that a bit disrespectful to the recently deceased?”
A few steps later, Suamalie responded to my question. “The dead won’t be getting any help from it anymore, and anything that will help you survive in any given situation is not seen as disrespectful to the dead. Where you are from…” she paused for a moment.
“The Conclave.” I spoke assuming she didn’t want to be rude as she was trying to give me a lesson.
“The Conclave, when your hunters come back, do you only make use of certain bits of a kill, or do you try your best to make use of every bit and piece of the felled creature?”
“I don’t see why we wouldn’t, even if you couldn’t use everything all at once, we try to make sure to use everything as food, clothing, or fertilizer. Is there a reason why you’re asking?”
“That is one of the major philosophies of Gaianism upon the battlefield. Everything has a use, and there is a use for everything, if not to you then to someone else. And that’s what I did, the fallen had no use for a weapon, whereas you had a need. That’s why none of those soldiers said or did anything to us after what I did. Was it physically disrespectful to the dead? Yes. But that person that I took that weapon from would know that what I did was required for our survival. So long as that halberd I handed you dies before you do, then his death would have had meaning. Rather than leaving those items to lay there and not contribute to anything, in this way their fight carries on. In fact, in Gaianism there is a belief that any weapon that survives conflict through the deaths of it’s users carries on the users wills. The more conflicts it goes through and hands that hold it, the greater the will behind each action it performs later on in future fights. That is why most of our veteran and senior staff use items with storied histories. As long as they help you live, even a dying soldier will give a wounded soldier medical supplies. That’s simply the kind of religion we are. Most outsiders see us as desecrators and scavengers, but any who live here know that to survive takes the will of the living and the dead both when each day is a fight.”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“That was… far deeper than I was actually expecting. But given where we are that makes sense.” Being at a loss for words, I said the only thing I could think of. “I’ll make this soldiers will count then, Sol knows that I’ll need it… and Luna, too.”
Small lesson finished, Suamalie and I ran in silence for minutes on end, with me throwing out a burst of divine energy at irregular intervals whenever I felt the timing was right and we were by a window. Down and down our travel took us, as we also went further and further away from our starting point. The more we ran through the wall, the more time I had to think about where exactly it was that we were running, and how we had seemingly gone down more sets of stairs than I remember actually having to climb on the initial way up.
“Hey Suamalie, I have a question about the wall. What exactly is it? It feels… different from when you we first entered. I’m not sure if it’s just a me thing given our current situation, or if something has actually occurred causing this place to change.”
Her response was immediate and curt. “At this point I shouldn’t even be surprised when you do something like that. Like what you think? Oh, you know, managing to find the odd event out from the crowd, or something just as ridiculous. First it was noticing our tracking formation when you arrived, though that was more of a lack of understanding on our part. Then it was surprising my mother, do you have any idea how difficult that actually is to do? And you just… stroll right on up and exceed every single one of her expectations. And now this.” Letting out as much of a sigh as she could while running, she shook her head and continued speaking. “Yes, this wall changed. I’m not quite certain on the details on how this happens, but I can tell you at least one thing with certainty. This is the work of the Colony Leader. Like my mother who holds the title of ‘The Huntress’, the Colony leader is also an individual who holds a large quantity of divinity within them. Their job is to protect Gai’faitotoa and all its inhabitants to their utmost capabilities.”
“With that in mind, do you remember what this wall looked like prior to the start of the fighting right? No more than a few floors, with five being the average number and seven being on the high end to keep the top of the wall level as it goes from one end to the other. Riddle me this now, how many floors have we gone down since we started running?”
Having not paid the slightest bit of attention, I had no idea as to the answer. “Not in the slightest, I’ve been trying not to trample anyone in my way or get grabbed from a window. The lower we go, the more vicious ‘The Abyss’ gets is the only thing I can tell you with confidence.”
“Ten. The number of floors that we have descended is ten. As much sense as that does not make at first glance, it becomes at least understandable when you think of this like a shield more than a wall. and the hand the rests behind this shield belongs to none other than the Colony Leader. He might not be quite as combat capable as the Huntress is, or have the knowledge reserves that the Master of Rituals has access to, however he does have one thing that the others do not. That being Divinity. Not that the Huntress or Master of Rituals don’t have divinity, as they need that to get to those positions to begin with, but in comparison, the Colony Leader has more Divinity than either of them by leaps and bounds. In terms of Divinity amounts, the Huntress has the least, followed by the Master of Rituals, and leading the pack is the Colony leader. This particular Colony Leader actually holds so much Divinity within him that he only barley falls short when compared to the Huntress and Master of Rituals together.”
“EYES!!” turning, throwing, pulling, and illuminating. Have to make sure that thing out there knows where I am. “Continue, please.”
“As for how this has changed the wall, I’m not exactly sure aside from the fact that the Colony Leader has a direct connection with all of Gai’faitotoa’s defenses. If you haven’t noticed, we have not passed through a hallway where there were windows on the left side of the halls, the side with the city. The only current opening are facing out, meaning the Colony Leader already knows that we are in combat and is doing his best to make sure that he gives Gai’faitota any extra time he can. Meaning the only way back into the city from the wall is from the top. Basically, don’t expect much help from outside the confines of this fight.”
Guess that shows how much I paid attention to the side I wasn’t being attacked from. A quick glance to my left showed that, in fact, there were no windows on that side. Definitely got to work on that whole situational awareness thing.
“Back to what I was saying. The added complication of the Wall during these situations adds to the overall survivability of both the soldiers and the city, making it harder for singular enemies to find us, and making fighting situations more favorable upon encounters within the wall. though I’m not quite sure how well that idea plays out when the Enemy is massive and fluid in nature. The soldiers are trained to follow their instincts in the worst of scenarios, and when you don’t follow logic in this place, you get places faster. The Colony Leader said that he got the idea for this from an entirely separate Pantheon of Gods far, far away from where we are. He called it a Labyrinth. ‘When in doubt, follow your nose,’ is the only hint he gave us when he started implementing his idea while mumbling something about not having enough string. And that’s what I’ve been doing, following my nose, and so far we’ve been going down. So far, so good.”
Well that was a lot of information all at once. So the Leader is divinely strong, smart enough to look to other religions for ideas and implement them here, and is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his people. Why does that remind me of Tesoro? Maybe it’s a quirk of leaders or something. Regardless, he sounds like someone who’s tiring to deal with my personality, however, Lily or Eon might find him enjoyable considering their backgrounds and whatnot.
“Anything else I should know while were not overly busy?” I asked, trying my best not to sound sarcastic as it was a genuine question.
“That about covers it for the moment, and none to soon to. The smell of blood and fresh air is getting thicker, we should be close to one of the gates.”
… There are windows and dead bodies everywhere. How in Sol’s great name could the air get any fresher and the bodies get any bloodier? Not even going to bother asking that one. If we survive, I’ll bother bringing it up. Till then? Well, it looks like I’m about to have to start swinging this halberd I just got. This is going to be tiring… and Suamalie still hasn’t told me what it is we’re doing next.